Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari December 19th, 20:05

Good evening,

We are deepening the fight against Hamas's strongholds. Our forces are fighting above and below ground. Since the beginning of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, IDF forces have discovered approximately 1,500 terrorist tunnel shafts and tunnel routes of Hamas. It's important to explain that this underground infrastructure is one of the main elements in Hamas's terror operations. Dismantling Hamas's underground strongholds in the north, center, and south is a significant step in dismantling Hamas, and it takes time, and our forces are working to carry this out.

Today, we released special footage of special forces from the "Shaldag" Unit of the Air Force fighting inside a Hamas tunnel in the heart of Gaza City. These new breakthrough capabilities allow us to achieve significant accomplishments, including killing terrorists underground. These are networks of terrorist infrastructure, above and below ground, located within hospitals, residential apartments, and schools.

The forces are deepening their operation in the area – destroying weapons, terror tunnels, and killing terrorists. A thorough operation to dismantle Hamas from its capabilities.

In southern Gaza, in the Khan Yunis area, we are intensifying and deepening our operation; we added a whole brigade and additional engineering forces to the operation in the area – engineering forces to improve our engineering operations in the area. We are intensifying forces in the Khan Yunis Hamas’ strongholds to dismantle Hamas and will continue to do so with determination wherever required.

This is the war's objective, to dismantle Hamas, and it will take time, as long as necessary.

IDF air and land forces struck a series of Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon throughout the day. These include - terror infrastructure, military buildings, a weapons depot, and a Hezbollah launch site. In addition, we struck a Hezbollah terrorist squad in the Hanita area and killed several Hezbollah terrorists during the day. We will continue to strike any squad that tries or fires towards our territory.

Throughout the day, our forces returned fire to the sources of several launches towards the State of Israel, including Hezbollah's unmanned aerial vehicles.

Among the launches, we were also fired upon from Lebanon, fire that Hamas took responsibility for, and we responded with fire towards the sources of the launches. Hezbollah continues to act as a shield for Hamas-ISIS, endangering the state of Lebanon and its citizens. I repeat, Hezbollah continues to act as a shield for Hamas-ISIS, endangering the state of Lebanon and its citizens.

In the Home Front, I call upon you to continue to follow the Home Front Command's instructions. I remind again - we have an excellent aerial defense system, but the defense is not hermetic.

The return of the hostages is one of the war's objectives - a central war objective. The IDF is investing special forces and intelligence in locating living hostages; this is a top mission. The forces operating in the field are also instructed on how to search for living hostages. We will continue to make all possible efforts to return all the hostages held in Gaza - all possible efforts. We embrace the families of the hostages and continue to accompany them.