Incoming IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir: Plans for Gaza Strip "not offensive enough"

Incoming IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir visited Southern Command today (Sunday), demanding to review existing offensive operations in the Gaza Strip, in the event Israel is required to restart the war, according to Channel 14 News.

While engaging in this survey, Zamir was often critical of the details of various plans, including arguments that they were "not offensive enough," and instructed that new ones be prepared, based on values such as victory and destroying the enemy.

Critics of the Netanyahu government from the right, especially those belonging to the Torat Lechima organization, have repeatedly argued that senior IDF officers, including outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, were far too cautious in their operations against Hamas and Hezbollah, relying too much on targeted raids and time-limited operations rather than more thorough efforts meant to entirely extirpate terrorist organizations where they stand.

The current Operation Iron Wall in northern Samaria is meant in large part to be an answer to this criticism. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the operation is based on lessons learned from fighting in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere, per which trying to "mow the grass" only weakens but does not eliminate terrorist organizations and units, which soon recover from the IDF's blows.

The aim now is to entirely destroy terrorist organizations, root and branch, and Katz has instructed that the IDF establish long term bases in areas which have been "cleared out" of terrorists, to make it clear that the IDF is here to stay.

Groups such as the Tikvah Forum, which represents some of the families of hostages, have also repeatedly called for the IDF and the government to be far more aggressive in its efforts against Hamas. Members of the Israeli government have repeatedly said that if the war restarts, it will be far less restrained than it was when Joe Biden was President, as he demanded all sorts of steps which weakened or blunted IDF offensives in the name of protecting civilians.