IDF Spokesperson RDML Daniel Hagari Speaks at WZO Emergency Conference

144 days of war,

“We started the war in northern Gaza, dismantling the military framework of Hamas. The goals set by the cabinet were very high and righteous goals, but it will take time to reach those goals. We are dismantling the military framework of Hamas from the north to the south. We already dismantled 18 battalions out of 24 and we are finishing the others, the last four are in Rafah. In recent days, we have been finishing dismantling the military framework of Hamas in Khan Yunis. We are still in Khan Yunis because there is still intelligence in Khan Yunis, and we are working together with the ISA, gathering intelligence. 

Rafah is important because of three things:

1. There are hostages in Rafah.
2. There are still four Hamas battalions in Rafah, they are not the strongest ones but we need to dismantle the military framework of those battalions.
3. The aim of the war is to make sure that October 7 never happens again. In order to do that, Hamas cannot have the military capabilities to carry out October 7 again. We need to finish the job, and not leave a ‘seed’ that will grow again.

 “Another reason is that the proliferation of arms to Gaza also comes from Rafah––underneath the ground, above the ground–– and we need to make sure that we are setting the conditions so proliferation of arms will decrease and all the capabilities that Hamas brought that we are facing now will diminish.”

“Two main conditions need to happen in order to make this operation (in Rafah) occur.

1. To maintain the importance of Egypt as a key player in this area, as a key player for Israel with the border with Gaza: we are talking with the Egyptians and are making sure that whatever we are doing in Rafah will serve both countries. In a military [perspective] we have a great relationship with Egypt and we have to listen to the Egyptians and their interests.  
2. There are now 1.4 million people in Rafah. We cannot conduct an operation with 1.4 million people in Rafah. There are 2.2 million people in Gaza, so we need to set the conditions with humanitarian excellence, making sure that the movement of people to a safer zone will occur, and that they will be provided with food, medical care, Hospitals, field hospitals––that have already been built in these areas by countries like the Emirates and others––and those conditions can be set, so we can conduct the Rafah operation.”

“We are fighting against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza. Our aim in this war, our main mission, is to rescue our hostages but also make sure that the citizens of Gaza are free from Hamas. We need to make sure that Hamas is dismantled in a military way, not in an ideological  way, because you cannot demolish an idea. You can demolish the military framework, so they will not have the capability to do what they did and use the Gazans.”

“You can see two things in Hamas’ philosophy: the cruelness and brutality of ISIS, that was emphasized on the 7th of October, which is the most documented massacre in world history.

It was live streamed. They used by GoPros and cell phones of the victims––the terrorists were photographing their horrifying actions, raping, murdering, burning, mutilating…. This is the most horrific massacre. When Hamas finished this cruelty,  they went into Gaza, and did the other thing in their philosophy: used the Gazans as a human shield.

They have been building for years, this technique of positioning tunnels underneath hospitals, underneath schools, using apartments, putting weapons and terrorists in civilians areas, and especially in sensitive areas like schools, hospitals, mosques and others, and we need to reveal this system and to break this system so that something new will grow in Gaza.”

“The 240 hostages taken at the beginning of this war are, again, one of the main missions in the hearts and minds of every soldier. Some of the soldiers passed through the Nova party when they entered Gaza.

If you were to meet a soldier in Gaza in the street, in one of their missions and ask them what is the most important thing? Why are you here for 60 days, 70 days? they will tell you I'm here for one thing––to rescue the hostages.

This is on their minds, in their hearts… and I'm sure that the tragic moment  where a soldier, our soldier, tragically killed three hostages… It's something that we did, a lesson learned quickly. A fast investigation and lesson learned to all the soldiers in Gaza, because again, dismantling Hamas is one thing, but rescuing the hostages is the main thing that we are trying to do in Gaza.

(in regards to the release of the hostages) “…our role is to set the conditions to make it happen and we will know [how to] face any scenario that we will find.”

“When we had the first tactical pause that brought more than 110 hostages back to Israel, this would have never happened without the military pressure on Hamas. It was Yahya Sinwar who decided to stop and did this tactical pause to allow his forces to get humanitarian aid, and reorganize. And we knew that we're taking a risk, but this risk for 110 hostages… This is what we were there for. So we'll know how to do our risk management again and again, as long as the hostages are coming back home.”

“What's very unique in this war, and you know that special units are all around the field, involved with the regular brigades for those moments, a scenario that might come in minutes, and you’ll need a special force in the field, and they're operating bravely on all fronts…”

“I don't think the question is where is the target (Yahya Sinwar). We will get Yahya Sinwar, alive or dead, and as much time as it takes, we will do that. We are gathering our intelligence, we're doing very creative things. We're taking risks and we will get to him.”

“It’s similar to when people tell you things and you say yes, I know, I know there are 500 km of tunnels… But when you get there and you touch and you see the size and the amount and the strategy and the readiness… It's a different thing. So we knew, but when you face it and you fight…”

“Gaza is one of the hardest arenas of fighting in the world, and the IDF is doing professional work in an area which is so crowded, with 500 kilometers of tunnels, with terrorists that are so vicious, using hospitals, using schools, using mosques… using their own people as human shields, and we are overcoming all of the above and fighting them and dismantling them. They didn't think, they didn't imagine, that we'll get to Shifa. They didn't imagine that we will be in Khan Yunis. They didn't imagine that we'd fight inside the tunnels. They didn't think that we'd do it.  Even other enemies around us didn't think we'll be there, but we'll be there. We'll be there until our hostages are home and until we dismantle this military framework… we'll do it on every one of our borders, pushing back our enemies, so there'll be no 7th of October.”

“A lot of millions (funds) were coming into Gaza, cement, electricity. All were used for one target (goal). For building tunnels for Hamas’ military framework, not for the citizens of Gaza. Hamas doesn't see itself as the sovereign. The sovereign is the international organizations. They're the sovereign, and it even takes key roles in those international organizations so it can take control like we revealed in UNRWA, and we will also reveal in the coming days other things, about how Hamas is in those organizations.”

“We will reveal Hamas’ face around the world, how it uses its own population as a human shield, how it uses international organizations to conduct its terror war machine.”

“I think we thought that we understand, that we know Hamas, and we were wrong. We need to be very modest about that, about understanding our enemies and about our readiness. We thought that we have a good obstacle (border fence) and sensors in the border, and we were also wrong about that. And we have a lot of lesson-learning to do. We are going to be very transparent, very honest about it, very modest in order to learn because if we don't learn— we'll face it again. We have to show it to the public. In order to build trust, we will do a thorough investigation about those events and show the conclusions, why did they occur and what we are going to do so they won't happen again.”

“This war, it's gonna be a long war. The war for legitimacy… We're conducting all the visits of thousands of journalists and leaders in the communities that were hit from the 7th of October. But we need to fight on social media and we need to bring the truth.”

"We need to make sure that the world remembers our just war. We need to make sure that they remember that Hamas is using its own people as human shields, and we need to do it again and again. Until we win this war and we'll prevail.”