Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi today (Sunday) met the fighters in the Gaza Strip and addressed the unfortunate incident in which three hostages were killed by IDF fire.
At the beginning of his remarks, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said, "I tell you in a very simple way, the incident is a very difficult and painful incident and no one will come and say otherwise. But I will tell you beyond that - we all understand that, that is not why I have to come and talk to you. I'm telling you this is an event that very easily could not have happened.
"And think, why did we come to maneuver? We set three goals, to dismantle Hamas, to restore security to the residents of the Gaza Strip envelope, and you are here on the corridor, from which attacks on Be'eri came out, such severe attacks, and the third mission is to return the abductees."
"The IDF does not shoot a person who raises his hands"
The Chief of Staff continued and described the incident in which the abductees were killed. "Now we all really want it. And I'm telling you that at this event, three people came out, they took into account that they were taking a risk in coming to the IDF force, to reduce the risk they really thought, they took off their shirts so that no one would think they had a charge on them and held a white cloth on a pole to identify themselves, they spoke in Hebrew, called 'help'. And really, our fighters that I haven't met yet, but I'm sure they're the best because everyone wants to do good, and I'm sure they were sure they were doing the right thing.
"But I am talking to you not to say whether they were okay or not, but so that we will be okay from now on. You see two people, they have their hands up and no shirts, take two seconds, and I want to tell you something no less important, and if it's two Gazans with a white flag who come out to surrender, do we shoot them? Absolutely not.
"Absolutely not. This is not the IDF. I tell you, those who got confused here, even those who fought and now put down their weapons and raise their hands, we capture them, we don't shoot them.
According to him, "We extract a lot of intelligence from the prisoners we have, we already have over a thousand. We don't shoot them because the IDF does not shoot a person who raises his hands. This is strength, this is not weakness. And I tell you, I remember what I told my soldiers as a Brigade commander, last sentence in the conversation before fighting. Work with your head. We constantly feel that fighting is with the hands, fighting is with the feet. I tell you gentlemen, don't stop thinking for one second in fighting."
At the end he said, "He who succeeds in using his head while fighting, he hits the enemy better, gets hurt less, he makes tricks better, he hurts our forces less, he does everything better, he is sharper on the environment, he recognizes things.
"Constantly ask yourself questions, constantly work with your head, and I wish we have another opportunity for abductees to come to us or that we arrive at a house, and we do the right thing. Keep up the excellent work, it is a great and strong force and we will need it even further forward with the commanders, transfer this on to all the soldiers around as well."
