Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, January 17th, 2024, 20:40

Good evening,
This evening, I will explain what is happening in the war in Gaza, focusing on the scale of the forces, their missions, the duration of the activity, and the impact of all these on the top goal of returning the hostages.

Currently, three divisions are operating in Gaza.
One division is fighting in the north, the north of the Strip, and is conducting operations to thwart terror, this is the same terror that remains after significant action was taken in the north of Gaza to dismantle terrorist infrastructure. The second division is holding the corridor that separates northern Gaza from southern Gaza, and this division is fighting in the center of the Strip and is conducting operational activity. The third division, with the widest scope of forces, is fighting in the Khan Yunis area.

There is fighting on the ground; last night, rocket fire was carried out from the Central Camps area towards Netivot. Shortly after, within a close range of about 500 meters, Reserve Paratroopers conducted an operation in the area, located and destroyed thirty rocket launcher barrels that were hidden underground, loaded with additional rockets for further launch and ready to be fired. The forces are on the ground and are ready to conduct such operations against any threat. We will continue to operate in this manner all the time.

We have completed the destruction of the weapon production infrastructure of Hamas's Central Camps Brigade, a brigade that controlled the center of the Gaza Strip. The infrastructure included workshops and factories above and below ground. These were central to Hamas's empowerment capability, and from there, they transported the weapons and rockets to all areas of the Strip. The dismantling of the infrastructure took time due to a complex underground layout and also combat challenges with terrorists in the area. It was only possible to dismantle this layout through ground operations. We will later publish the documentation of the dismantling and the entire operation in the area.

The division operating in the Khan Yunis area operates with the largest force. It expanded its operations; it was in east Khan Yunis and extended its attack on another Hamas battalion found in south Khan Yunis, and now it is carrying out strikes there. In the past day, there have been heavy battles there and unfortunately, there were casualties. Our forces eliminated more than thirty terrorists in the area, just in the last day. Underground in Khan Yunis, an additional operation is underway for scanning, locating, and destroying what we call - the underground maze beneath the ground. This is a time-consuming operation because we must maintain the safety of our forces and also the safety of hostages who may still be in that area.

The fighting in the tunnels and their destruction is challenging, combining new combat methods, some of which did not previously exist in the IDF, and even, If I can modestly say, not in other places in the world. There are Engineering forces above ground and special forces underground. We are learning every day, drawing lessons, improving, and advancing in this underground warfare.
This week, we rotated a division to be refreshed. The rotation of the forces is an operational matter – first and foremost due to the safety of our forces, which also requires the relief of the forces. It's impossible to fight for such a long period of time, without also training and drawing lessons. The operational situation on the ground also requires adjusting the forces, changes are happening on the ground based on intelligence, the enemy's location, etc., sometimes even reducing forces in the field, for our security and achievement of a better mission accomplishment. The forces must operate relative to all the threats in the area, and the IDF conducts daily situational assessments, looking at all the combat zones and making decisions on the placement of forces accordingly.

We have amazing reservists, some of whom we send for rest tell us that they want to keep helping in the war efforts. We are required to plan ahead in case it is required for us to activate them again. The planning and relieving of soldiers is necessary to be prepared not only for Gaza but for all combat zones.

We are making every effort to produce intelligence about the hostages and adjust the operational activity according to the intelligence available to us. It must be said to the public - there is no complete picture of the hostages. We are in a continuous intelligence effort to complete this picture, to build it, to achieve it all the time. The effort to return the hostages is of the highest priority. This sentence is expressed in the highest priority and in actions, in intelligence activity and in very complex activity that we do not publish in its entirety. And perhaps most importantly, maybe very importantly, is to create optimal conditions in the field that the IDF creates for there to be processes for returning the hostages.

In the north, we struck a series of Hezbollah targets in Lebanese territory today. We eliminated a terrorist cell that fired rockets from Lebanon in the Har Dov area. In addition, we eliminated a Hamas terrorist cell that carried out shooting from the Qlaileh area in southern Lebanon.
Hamas continues to carry out terror from Lebanese territory. The Hezbollah organization is providing shelter for Hamas in Lebanon, thereby endangering the residents of Lebanon and especially the residents of southern Lebanon.

Today the General Chief of Staff visited an exercise in the Golan Heights as part of a series of training taking place these days in the north for the ground forces. The Chief of Staff was impressed by the preparedness of the forces in the north and spoke with the commanders.
Our goal in the north is clear - to bring about change so that the residents of the north can return to their homes safely.

In Judea and Samaria, together with the Israel Security Agency, we eliminated the head of the terror infrastructure in the Balata camp in Nablus. Additional terrorists were also eliminated in this operation. Just an hour later, our forces began a wide-ranging operation to thwart terror in Tulkarm, and this operation is still ongoing. In the village of Bani Naim, near Hebron, IDF fighters are preparing to demolish the homes of the two terrorists who carried out the terrorist attack in Ra'anana.
We will continue to act to thwart terror wherever required.