Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari December 27th, 20:45

Good evening,

Today, the Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, conducted a situational assessment at the northern border. There, LTG Halevi approved plans for the continuation of the fighting – emphasizing that our forces are in very high readiness for the expansion of fighting in the north. Our first task is to restore security and the sense of security to the residents in the north, and this will take time.

In the south, our forces are fighting in several key areas in Gaza: one, in the area called al-Burj, an area in the central camps in which we are on the third day of strikes, eliminating many terrorists and destroying terrorist infrastructure; the second is Khan Yunis – Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip is a main Hamas terror center where we have expanded the operation, we added another brigade to this area today and we continue to operate there using new methods of warfare above and below ground.

There, we are uncovering terrorist infrastructure and eliminating terrorists above and below ground. We are in the final stages of the strike in the al-Burj area located in the northern Gaza Strip where we eliminated many terrorists over the last day. Furthermore, we started an additional effort in Khirbat Ikhza'a. Khirbat Ikhza'a is located near the Israeli border and from there the terrorists left to carry out the brutal massacre on October 7 in Kibbutz Nir Oz – we are operating there decisively.

We completed the destruction of the underground infrastructure in the Rantisi Hospital area, which we identified and exposed several weeks ago.

In the last month, IDF forces investigated this area while fighting – there was quite a bit of fighting there – terrorists were eliminated there, our forces were also injured there. This area was very important to Hamas. We identified underground infrastructure there that was several kilometers long. The infrastructure connected different locations in the Gaza Strip, and the IDF forces exposed three tunnel shafts in the hospital area, one of which leads to the inside of a school.

The route included blast doors, combat management rooms, emergency hideout rooms, many weapons that were underground and other intelligence materials that we took and are using to expose additional terrorist infrastructure. The infrastructure was thoroughly destroyed at the beginning of the week – it takes time, it needs to be done decisively. This is one of Hamas' main capabilities. Underground infrastructure – for terrorist activities.