Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari October 30th, 21:00

Good Evening.

Last night, the soldier Ori Megidish was rescued by the IDF in an overnight ground operation after being taken hostage in the barbarous surprise attack by Hamas. The Chief of the General Staff and the head of the ISA met with Ori and her family in an emotional encounter. We brought Ori home.
I want to send a message from here to the hostages and their families. All IDF commanders and soldiers, members of the ISA, everyone - we are all committed and have a moral obligation to do everything. Everything to bring all of the hostages home.

I want to comment on the material that Hamas released earlier. Our heart is broken by the cry of Danielle and from the faces of Yelena and Rimon who sit beside her. Our hearts are with you and your families.
Hamas is engaging in psychological terror against us. Hamas wants us to share the material and wants to cause us pain. Especially because of this, we must remain resilient- ironclad resilience and temperance. We must not engage in Hamas’s mindgames, this is how we will win against them. The hostage issue is not just a national issue, and the psychological terror is not just against us. This is a global issue that touches the heart of every one of us. This is a war crime, a crime against humanity, on an unfathomable scale.

So far, we have informed the families of 315 fallen IDF soldiers, and 238 hostages including infants, children, women, the elderly, and the wounded who are being held by a murderous organization.
We embrace the bereaved families and the families of the hostages.

IDF forces continue to expand the ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Additional infantry, armor and combat engineering forces are entering Gaza for the continued coordinated operations by land, air and sea at full force. Our forces eliminated dozens of terrorists in the past day. The war plan is proceeding as intended and will continue to proceed in accordance with our missions.

In the North, earlier today, we eliminated a terrorist cell that was attempting to fire into Israel in the area of Rosh HaNikra. IDF forces attacked a variety of Hezbollah terror infrastructure targets in response to rocket launches towards Israel. We continue our deployment along the northern border, at very high readiness. We are targeting anyone who fires or attempts to infiltrate into Israel.