Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tonight (Tuesday) held a situation assessment for the home front issues, which focused on the return of the residents of the settlements 4-7 km from the Gaza Strip, where the security and civil conditions enable it, starting from the beginning of January.
The following participated in the assessment of the situation: Director General of the Ministry of Defense Major General (res.) Eyal Zamir, Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Amir Baram, Commander of the Home Front Command Major General Rafi Milo, Head of the Planning Division in the IDF Major General Eyal Harel, Major General (res.) Roni Numa, The head of Takuma Directorate, Lieutenant Colonel (res.) Moshe Edri and other professionals in the security system.
Defense Minister Gallant said at the end of the assessment of the situation: "Thanks to the work that the security system is doing on all its branches, the residents who will return to the settlements will see something new that they have not known. At first, there will be an overall security concept here, which will provide a different answer."
"In order for people to return to the settlements, they need security and resilience," said Gallant, "without the connection of these two things, nothing happens. In the first phase, we return a number of settlements in the northern part of the Gaza Strip envelope in a range that is more than 4 kilometers from the Strip. As soon as the IDF operates in the north of Gaza City, it changes the world order and enables the process. Soon we will work in other places as well, we will change accordingly, we will return the people to the other places. All this with the full envelope of the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli government.
"We are obliged to stay in Gaza and carry out all our tasks in order to return the settlements, we do not stop the task until we finish this whole problem called Hamas. This enables the return of the settlements, gives security to the citizens of Israel and also projects on other arenas."
