IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi on Wednesday appeared to issue a veiled rebuke of government officials who consider retaining the haredi sector’s blanket military draft exemption.
Speaking at the navy's captain's graduate course, Halevi said, "we promise at all times that our victims, those who have fallen, will not have been in vain. There is no other way to do this other than to be drafted for substantial service, to adorn the uniform, and to become commanders."
Halevi’s comments came as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant lined up alongside war minister Benny Gantz, opposition head Yair Lapid, and others, against the haredi parties in the coalition.
Halevi and Gallant’s aggressive stances have potentially pitted them against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who in principle is in favor of haredi service, but in practice has been a major enabler of their exemption in favor of the political backing it gave him over the years.
It remains unclear whether the sides will reach a compromise on the issue or whether Netanyahu will prioritize haredi demands and lose Gantz, and possibly even Gallant, or will the disagreements eventually cause the government’s collapse?
Halevi also warned, given the ongoing war, joining the IDF’s operational level would look quite different from what the naval graduates might have expected when they started training more than two years ago.
Military announces name of fallen soldier
The military announced on Wednesday night that St.-Sgt. David Sasson, 21, from Ganot Hadar, was killed in battle in the Hamad neighborhood of Khan Yunis. Five other soldiers were seriously wounded in the incident. The IDF has been operating there in force over the last few days.
IDF kills chief Hamas rocket commander
The IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced that troops had killed Hamas’s top rocket commander in central Gaza, Amar Atia Deruyash al-Adini, who was a critical part of Hamas’s rocket firing apparatus since 2008.
A statement said he was intimately involved with directing rocket fire both at central Israel and the South. The two security bodies added that al-Adini was involved in planning and managing aspects of the October 7 attack.
Recently, Hamas’s rocket fire has fallen to single digits, with many days, including Wednesday, with no rocket fire at all.
In northern Gaza in Beit Hanun, an IAF fighter jet eliminated terrorists who tried to escape to a nearby military building.
In Khan Yunis, fighter jets attacked terrorists complicit in the massacre of Nir Yitzhak on October 7 killing two platoon commanders and a squad commander from the Nukhba Force, Hamas’s elite unit.
Troops from the Nahal Brigade operated in the central Gaza Strip and killed approximately 20 terrorists.
IN THE NORTH, the IAF attacked Hezbollah military structures in the Yarun and Kafra regions of Lebanon, in addition to a strike in the Kfar Hamam region.
Earlier on Wednesday, an explosive Hezbollah UAV crossed into Israel in the Metulla area. The military said forces shot it down, and no injuries were reported.
After firing dozens of rockets at Israel on Tuesday, on Wednesday, Hezbollah fired single digits at press time.
The Middle East chief of The International Committee of the Red Cross said that an escalation of fighting on Lebanon’s southern border would further strain hospitals already struggling with a national financial crisis.
Since October 7, more than 50 civilians have been killed in Israeli shelling on Lebanon, along with more than 200 Hezbollah fighters, according to Lebanese medical and security sources.
About a dozen IDF soldiers and half as many civilians have been killed in shelling from Lebanon into Northern Israel.
Doctors in southern Lebanon have sounded the alarm, saying an influx of wounded has pushed the health sector to its limits.
Israel says about a dozen of its soldiers and half as many civilians have been killed in shelling from Lebanon into the north of the country.
Doctors in southern Lebanon have sounded the alarm, saying an influx of wounded has pushed the health sector to its limits.