Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari November 21st, 20:15

At the onset this evening, we must say that we have a moral obligation to ensure the safety of the hostages and to bring them home to their families. Our hearts are with the hostages in Gaza – children, women, men, elderly, and IDF soldiers as well. They were taken hostage by a brutal terrorist organization and are being held in Gaza. We will do anything, anything to bring them home as soon as possible.

The Chief of the General Staff conducted a situational assessment with reservists from reserve division inside the Gaza Strip. He told them that the ground operation is generating achievements and there is still a long way ahead. We will continue to pressure Hamas until the missions of the war are achieved, among them, obviously, the return home of the hostages. We will update the families of the hostages with any information we have regarding their loved ones, and then we will update the public, via the media. Regarding this matter, I recommend listening to reports from official sources only. We will report the truth to the public when we have the details and the facts. When we have them, we will report.

Over the course of the day, the IDF continued to deepen its operation and objectives in the Gaza Strip. We completed the encirclement of the Jabalya area, which is a significant zone of combat, and we deepened and concluded the fighting in the Zeitun area. The forces are exposing terrorists and killing them. We have the upper hand in every battle. We will continue to kill Hamas terrorists, wherever they are.

Today we continued in exposing the Hamas subterranean [tunnel] route under the Shifa Hospital. We will continue to expose other hospitals in Gaza. Hamas terrorists systematically built a vast subterranean infrastructure, using patients and hospital staff as human shields. Human shields for terror. This is a war crime, is against international law, and we will continue to expose this to the world, in order to highlight this practice.

In the north, we killed a few anti-tank cells who attempted to fire anti-tank missiles along the border into Israel. We are thwarting all imminent threats to our territory. This area, along the line of contact, is a combat zone, from which Hezbollah carries out terror attacks and in contravention of the Security Council and UN resolutions. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that operates from built-up areas in south Lebanon, endangering civilians. Additionally, we targeted military installations, weapons and weapon production sites in response to Hezbollah fire towards Israeli civilian areas in the north. There are no casualties in our territory. We are at a high level of preparedness in the north, on offense and on the defense.

On the Homefront, we continue to update the Homefront Command instructions. Continue to listen to the instructions; they save lives.

To date, we have notified the families of 390 IDF fallen soldiers who died in the battles for the defense of Israel. We embrace the families in their most difficult hour. We will continue to accompany them.