Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari December 24th, 20:15

Good evening,

Today we announced the fall of ten IDF soldiers in battles in the south and north of Gaza. Each one of them fell in combat for the security of the State of Israel, so that we could live here. We embrace the bereaved families, knowing that nothing can comfort them during these difficult days. You are part of the IDF family, and we will continue to stand by you. This war has a very heavy toll, and it claims lives.

It's important that you know – in urban combat, there are terrorists, explosives, anti-tank squads, and snipers. We are killing many terrorists every day of combat and are depriving the enemy of its terror capabilities – those same capabilities that led to October 7th.

We are providing a protective fire envelope for our forces from the air and ground. When necessary, every new strike on a Hamas stronghold containing terrorists which we had not previously entered, receives a full fire envelope from air and ground, and every force on the ground that requests air support receives the necessary fire cover.

Our forces continue to deepen the combat. In the Khan Yunis area, we are expanding our operation, uncovering tunnels, and killing terrorists. The fighting in Khan Yunis is complex, but we have reached quite a few tunnels and underground sites of Hamas, encountered terrorists, killed terrorists, and will continue to deepen this today and in the coming days.

Today we disclosed the activities of the 551st Reservist Brigade in the Jabalya area. In their operation, the forces exposed and dismantled a Hamas terror tunnel network in Gaza. This network was the northern command of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In the command center, located dozens of meters underground, we found weapons, infrastructure for manufacturing weapons, actual workshops where weapons were built, and emergency shelters from which the commander of the northern command, Ahmed Gahndour, led the attack on October 7th against the State of Israel.

The network was connected to a shaft leading to Gahndour home, whom we killed several weeks ago. This tunnel network was dug under a hospital and a school near the Indonesian hospital in the Jabalya area. Hamas operates from civilian places and uses them as shields and as a cover for terror activities. This is a very complex challenge that we are facing and are doing well with, providing full cover for our forces, and our forces in the field are achieving our goals like the 551th Brigade.

During the operation, as part of the effort to retrieve the hostages, our forces recovered the bodies of the hostages, Warrant Officer Ziv Dado, Sergeant Ron Sherman, Corporal Nik Beizer, Eden Zacharia, and Elia Toledano, may their memory be a blessing. We brought them for burial in Israel.

The bodies were transferred for examination to the Pathology Institute, where the circumstances of their deaths will be confirmed. We will update the families and then, with the families' approval, inform the public.

We share in the families' sorrow and embrace them.

We will continue with the policy that has led us so far: presenting every finding to the families first, and then presenting it to the public with transparency.

In the north, we completed a wave of extensive strikes, during which we struck a series of Hezbollah military targets, including terror infrastructure, military buildings, and rocket launching positions. Yesterday, we killed several Hezbollah terrorists. Throughout the day, we identified several launches from Lebanese territory, and our forces immediately returned fire.