PM: We’re reaching deeper than Hamas ever imagined, no truce before hostages freed

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday the IDF has been reaching deeper into Gaza than Hamas ever imagined, and warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group that it would be making the “greatest mistake of its life” if it opens a new full-on war front.

Speaking from the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said he was addressing the nation in order to update Israelis on the war.

His remarks came a month after the Hamas terror group launched a surprise onslaught, killing some 1,400 people and injuring thousands — mostly civilians — and taking at least 240 men, women and children back to Gaza as hostages. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and remove it from power in the Strip but has also had to contend with rocket fire from Lebanon and deadly attacks along its border with that country. A barrage of rockets was fired Tuesday.

All three members of the war cabinet established to oversee the military campaign made separate statements during the evening, with Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ruling out a ceasefire until the hostages are returned home.

“In the south, the war is moving forward with force that Hamas has never seen,” Netanyahu said. “Gaza City is surrounded. We are operating within it, we are deepening the pressure on Hamas every hour, every day.”

He said that thousands of terrorists have been eliminated, both aboveground and in a vast network of tunnels, including many of those who planned and carried out the slaughter of October 7.

 

 

IDF ground forces operate in the northern Gaza Strip, in this photo released for publication on November 7, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

Netanyahu also said the ground operation had destroyed “countless” Hamas command centers, positions and tunnels that are believed to run for hundreds of kilometers under Gaza and are used by Hamas to move forces, store weapons, and launch attacks on Israeli forces.

“Hamas is discovering that we are reaching places they thought we would never reach,” he said.

In the north, Netanyahu said, the IDF is both defending and attacking. He said that Israel will not accept Hezbollah or Hamas in Lebanon “harming our communities and our citizens.”

“We will respond with heavy fire to any of their attacks against us,” he promised.

If Hezbollah enters the war, Netanyahu said — then repeated — “it will be making the greatest mistake of its life.”

Regarding the hostages held in Gaza, Netanyahu said he spoke with the president of the Red Cross and demanded that it work to secure their immediate release, “as required by international law.” He also demanded that the Red Cross visit all the hostages and establish their well-being, again as international law requires.

“There will not be a ceasefire without the return of our kidnapped,” Netanyahu stressed, delivering that declaration “to our enemies and our friends alike.” He added that the ground operation is a vital part of the effort to get the hostages home.

Jerusalem is facing diplomatic pressure to allow humanitarian pauses in the fighting, including from Washington, which has steadfastly backed Israel’s right to defend itself following the Hamas assault.

Netanyahu noted that he speaks with US President Joe Biden regularly, and appreciates the support from the White House and from the American people.

He vowed that Israel “will destroy Hamas’s military and governance capabilities… Gaza will no longer constitute a threat to Israel.”

Netanyahu again called on the Gazan population to move south — “you are already doing it, complete it, because we will not stop,” he said.

The Israeli military campaign is mostly focused on the northern Gaza Strip, where Hamas has key assets. Israel is urging Gazans to head to the south of the enclave and thousands did Tuesday, many of them waving white flags, passing through an evacuation corridor set up by the IDF. They joined an estimated 800,000 who have already migrated.

Netanyahu also promised that his government will open its pockets to rehabilitate devastated southern communities, no matter the cost.

“We will fight together, and with God’s help, we will win together,” concluded Netanyahu.

The ongoing IDF operation in Gaza, he said, “is an incredible success. I’m telling you, the Americans were here. They came and explained what happened at Fallujah… They are astounded by our achievements… Of course, there are painful losses, but overall the success is phenomenal.”

US military advisers are in Israel to offer their help, which includes experiences gained in Iraq, and in particular the town of Fallujah where the US fought major battles against insurgents in 2004. Since the start of the ground operation, 30 IDF soldiers have been killed in Gaza.

Defense Minister Gallant, speaking earlier in the day, called the Gaza Strip “the biggest terror base mankind has ever built,” and also rejected any humanitarian pause before Palestinian terror groups release the more than 240 hostages they are holding.

In a televised press statement, Gallant said IDF ground forces are deployed “in the heart” of Gaza City. They have stormed terror strongholds in Gaza “from all directions, in perfect coordination with maritime and aerial forces,” and are “tightening the chokehold” around the city.

“We will press on until victory and until the hostages are returned home,” he said.

Gallant said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “is hiding in his bunker and is without contact with his associates,” vowing again to eliminate him.

Regarding growing international demands for humanitarian pauses, Gallant said “humanitarian pauses, to me, means first and foremost the [return of the] captives held by the savages. There will be no humanitarian pauses without [the return of] the hostages.”

War cabinet minister Benny Gantz called the conflict a “multi-front war,” marking the government’s strongest description yet of the expansion of the combat to other arenas.

“The focus is Gaza, but we are fighting on defense and on offense both in the north and elsewhere,” the minister said, in an address from the Kirya base.

More than 20 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel Tuesday, as US diplomats continued to try to remove Hezbollah from the spiraling fight.

Within Gaza, Gantz said that “this war is unlike anything we have experienced in the past,” pointing in particular to how deeply embedded Hamas is within civilian populations.

“We are required to fight deep in the field against an enemy that is turning hospitals and schools into war rooms and weapons depots,” he said, 11 days into Israel’s Gaza ground operation.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields and as troops have moved further into Gaza they have uncovered weapons, including rocket launchers, situated within civilian sites.

The IDF said Tuesday it uncovered more tunnels in the northern Gaza Strip, near a Ferris wheel and a university. Both tunnels were later destroyed.

In the same area as the university, a weapons depot was found. The IDF says troops recovered chemical substances, assault rifles, RPGs, mines and other equipment.

Troops also came under fire from gunmen inside a mosque. An airstrike was called to take out the Hamas operatives as they tried to flee into a tunnel.

In a separate incident, the IDF said Hamas launched anti-tank guided missiles at troops from several locations, including adjacent to hospitals. It said a helicopter provided suppressing fire to extract the troops.

Troops also killed several Hamas operatives and found rocket launchers and other weapons inside a school. The IDF said the school was used by Hamas as a base for mortar and rocket fire on Israel.

Only one of the more than 240 hostages held by Hamas has been freed by Israeli forces, and Gantz said that Israel will make any political or military move necessary to release the rest.

“I promise that we will do everything to bring them home – by force and by political action. We will fight those who need it, and we will talk to anyone we can,” he said, stopping short of advocating for a full Palestinian security prisoner swap, as has been floated by some.

“We will not give up the chance to bring anyone back,” Gantz continued.

The families of Hamas-held hostages have held several protests, attacking the government for not doing enough to free their loved ones.

In his daily briefing Tuesday evening, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said there will be no ceasefire as the military pushes forward with its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

“Hamas terrorists tell themselves that there will be a ceasefire. There won’t be one. We are moving forward,” he said.

Hagari said the IDF has struck more than 14,000 targets in the Gaza Strip, destroyed more than 100 tunnel entrances, and captured 4,000 weapons — including rockets — hidden in civilian infrastructure.

The October 7 Hamas attack came with a barrage of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli population centers. Hamas and other terror groups have continued raining rockets on Israel, causing more deaths and damage, including on Tuesday evening, when a rocket scored a direct hit on a house in Savyon. There were no injured in that incident. Over 200,000 Israelis have been displaced by the attacks.

The Hamas-run health ministry claims that more than 10,300 Gazans have been killed since the start of the war, a figure that cannot be independently verified and includes both Hamas terror operatives as well as those killed by failed Palestinian rocket launches at Israel. Hamas has been accused of artificially inflating the death toll, and does not distinguish between civilians and terror operatives.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.