“Hamas has been hit hard; it is taking blow after blow,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters on Thursday night.
“Our soldiers are progressing and succeeding in their missions. I will repeat this again tonight—there will be no ceasefire without the return of hostages. We will take any action necessary for this,” said Gallant.
“Right now, there are [Israeli] children in Gaza. Some of them saw their own parents die in front of their eyes. Savages have kidnapped them and are holding them hostage. We will not stop fighting until we bring our children home. As a father, I wish to ask the whole world—what kind of father would stop searching for his children? I see these children as my own. I will not stop fighting, and I will not stop searching for them until I reach them,” added the defense minister.
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Earlier Thursday, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Israel had agreed to observe daily four-hour “humanitarian pauses” in its operation against Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip.
Gallant noted that the Israel Defense Forces are currently operating “in the heart of Gaza City. They are on the outskirts of Shati; they are near the Shifa Hospital; they are very close to the Gaza port.
“The terrorists located in the basements of Shifa [Hospital] tonight, can hear the thundering sound of our tanks and bulldozers. They [terrorists] hear it underground; they hear it and tremble with fear,” said Gallant.
On Friday, a misfired Hamas missile slammed into the hospital. While Hamas quickly attempted to blame Israel, radar images from the IDF showed it being launched from a Hamas stronghold.
The minister revealed that the military has started employing new methods to reach Hamas terrorists located in attack tunnels, as well as to eliminate the subterranean passageways.
“This will continue and improve in the coming days,” Gallant said. “Our forces are working to find unique solutions for these missions, they are working and succeeding. I repeat: We will reach every person who has acted against the citizens of Israel—anyone who kidnapped and harmed women and children. We will get to them all, whether it takes a week, a month, a year, and if necessary, even years. We will not let anyone go. We will eliminate them [terrorists] all, they have no place under the sun,” said Gallant.
He then pivoted to the north, where Hezbollah “tries to harm the citizens of Israel, it tries and takes blow after blow. Our forces in the northern arena are prepared, the pilots are sitting in the cockpits, ready for any command, prepared and facing the north.
“This is the most justified and righteous war that the people of Israel have experienced since the establishment of the state 75 years ago,” said Gallant. “We are fighting against evil; we are fighting against an enemy who is trying to harm us; we are fighting against those who wanted to show murder and brutality in order to deter us.”
–JNS