Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari November 8th, 20:15

Good Evening.

We continue to deepen the offensive inside Gaza City. Right now, ground forces are operating deep inside Gaza City with the support of the Air Force, the Navy and with the precise and quality intelligence of the Intelligence Directorate and the ISA. The troops continue to dismantle terror tunnels and underground infrastructure, many of which are located adjacent to international aid organization sites, schools, mosques and hospitals. We continue to accumulate successes in combat. We have and will continue to kill many terrorists and seize many weapons, including over 700 RPG launchers, which were used against our forces and which were intended to be used against Israeli civilians. We caused significant damage to the Hamas air and sea capabilities that were intended to be used in strategic attacks against our assets on land, sea and in the air.

Tonight, along with the ISA, we released testimonies from questionings and conversations, that prove the way Hamas uses ambulances and hospitals as ‘shields’ and hideouts from IDF attacks. This is a violation of International Law, and we will continue to expose this evidence to the world, to demonstrate how this murderous organization, that perpetrated the massacre of October 7th, hides behind civilians, in violation of international law, and commits war crimes while fighting against us. Today we saw 50,000 Gazans move from northern to southern Gaza. They are leaving because they understand that Hamas lost its grip in northern Gaza, and that the south is safer. There is a safer area, where medicine, water and food are supplied. They understand this well. We will continue to maintain this humanitarian corridor to the south. Also tomorrow, we will continue to allow the civilians in Gaza to move south away from the grasp of Hamas in the north. Hamas continues to lose its grasp in the north. The Hamas leadership is disconnected. They sit in the bunkers, disconnected from the public, disconnected from their own terrorists that are fighting in the field against our forces and are being killed. They are also disconnected abroad. They are concerned with their own survival. We will continue to pursue the Hamas leadership and to kill them.

Comments by the Gazan public, against its own leadership, describe what is going on the street in Gaza vis a vis the Hamas leadership.

In the north, this evening, there was no aerial infiltration into Israeli territory. Today, we attacked sites from which anti-tank missiles and fire had been launched towards the area of Dovev an Shtula. The IDF will continue to respond in the North with significant force against any fire towards the territory of the State of Israel. Any cell will be killed, any infiltration attempt will be thwarted, any fire to our territory will be responded to with significant force. We are on very high readiness in the north. Both offensively and defensively.

Yesterday, I mentioned the Home Front Command application. I want to inform you the app was upgraded on iphone devices and I request that the public update the app so that you can receive the relevant updates.

Thus far, we have notified the families of 239 hostages. I wish to update that this number changes based on identification of bodies within Israel, and we will bring them to rest in Israel. This number will continue to change based on the intelligence assessment and our findings. First, we will update the public, then the general public. This is a long and complex process of identification and we will continue it. We are doing everything, everything, to update the families with every bit of information that we have. We have not, and will not miss, any opportunity to bring the hostages home.

We have also notified the families of 351 fallen IDF soldiers who died defending the State of Israel. They fell bravely, courageously fighting murderous Hamas terrorists and they fell for us. They fell, along with the fallen of the Israel Police, the ISA, Magen David Adom and many brave civilians who fell in battle. May their memory be a blessing. We will continue to accompany the families and give them strength.

Question: Is the IDF prepared for a 72 hour humanitarian pause in exchange for a hostage release? And will such a ceasefire endanger IDF forces on the ground?

Answer: That is a good question. We must not let the commentators confuse us. There is no ceasefire; there is no ceasefire; we are fighting Hamas; there is no ceasefire.
The Gazan public is escaping from the north to the south because they understand that Hamas is using them as human shields.
What is there? There are humanitarian pauses. Such pauses, at set times, allow the civilian population to get organized and to move southward safely. We want the civilians to go to a safer area and to temporarily remain in that safer area in southern Gaza.
We are not fighting against the Gaza population, we are fighting against Hamas. Hamas, which is holding our hostages and carried out the October 7th massacre. We are fighting against Hamas and we will dismantle it.
We are allowing the Gazan public, which knows they are being manipulated by Hamas, to move to a safer area where there is medicine, water, food - being supplied with the support of the U.S. and Egypt.