IDF Air Force Chief Maj.-Gen. Tomer Bar said on Thursday that he has a list of which Hamas officials masterminded and planned the invasion of southern Israel this past Saturday and that they will all disappear.
He said that the IDF was continuing aggressive attacks from the air, having dropped more than 6,000 bombs on Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
“We still have a lot of work until this organization disappears: regarding its infrastructure and its personnel. We have a list of everyone who participated in the abominable crimes against our families, against the Gaza corridor residences, and we will get to all of them,” said the Air Force chief.
The number of Israeli dead was up to around 1,300, with the number of wounded around 3,000 and more than 100 kidnapped by Hamas.
Palestinian reports said that there were 1,417 dead Palestinians in Gaza, and the IDF has said that there were more than 1,000 dead Hamas terrorists within the Gaza corridor from the battles there.
IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi on Thursday said that the military will hit Gaza with its full force, without stopping, in his first live press conference since Hamas’ Saturday invasion. “We will hit hard and take apart the rulers of Gaza.”
The IDF chief said, “whoever is left in charge will understand very well that you do not do such things to the State of Israel.”
Next, he said, “this will take time and will require a cool head, but it is good that our cohesion and brotherhood have all come together....We will give an eternal blow to our enemies, this is our mission and we are determined to achieve it,” he said.
Referring to Hamas Gaza Chief Yahya Sinwar, he said, “This abominable attack was decided on by Yahya Sinwar, the sovereign in Gaza, which makes him and all of his apparatus under him dead men.”
Addressing a decline in the public’s faith in the IDF to provide security following the Hamas invasion, the IDF chief stated, “We have a [social] contract” to protect Israelis which “has seen ups and downs, and this time we are at a low point and paid a heavy price.”
Halevi said, “on Saturday morning, we did not live up to” our responsibility to defend the country.
At the same time, Halevi said the current focus needed to be on prosecuting the war against Hamas. He had seen heroic IDF commanders and rank and file soldiers step forward as part of the wave of Israel’s comeback against Hamas, he said.
“We will do everything to restore the contract and to return security. As part of this, we will strike deeply into Hamas’ capabilities and make a reality in Gaza which will enable more secure lives,” for Israelis.
Regarding Hezbollah, Halevi said, “To Hezbollah I say one thing: the IDF is strongly prepared on all fronts, for every scenario. I would not start with us.”
Also, on Thursday there were new media reports about both the IDF and the Shin Bet receiving some low-level warning signs late Friday night that there might be some new action from Gaza.
However, all of the reports indicate that the suspicion was of a minor rocket round or a minor border penetration, such as has happened many times before without becoming a major event.\
No warnings came anywhere close to knowing or predicting the massive scale of the invasion that took place.
Earlier Thursday, IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari said that there are significant signs that Hamas control over Gaza was already starting to falter, five days into overwhelming Israeli airstrikes.
Hagari stopped far short of saying it had completely lost control, recognizing that the terror group continues to fire rockets into Israel in significant numbers and continues to initiate small-size attacks on land and by sea. However, he said that Hamas’ high command is much more cut off from those decisions now and that more attacks are being carried out by isolated sub-commanders who are not necessarily part of a coordinated strategy.
For example, Hagari said Hamas is no longer aware in real time which of its commanders are alive and which are dead. This causes a delay in replacing the large numbers of commanders killed by Israel’s counterattack.
Israel to explain Gaza electricity, water cut-off
Hagari said that Israel will likely explain to the world later Friday what its legal position is on cutting off Gaza’s electricity and water.
Already on Wednesday, criticism in many sectors was starting to build that even if the IDF’s military counterattacks were justified against Hamas’ attackers, cutting off the entire strip, especially from water, was illegal collective punishment.
Although some Israeli officials have said that Gaza could receive humanitarian aid from Egypt, there have also been attacks on the crossings with Egypt.
In addition, the air force’s ongoing airstrikes continued across all of Gaza, with some additional focus on Hamas’ elite commando unit Nokhba, which led the invasion on Saturday.
The air attacks in Gaza were based on new intelligence that the IDF obtained from interrogating Hamas terrorists captured during battles in the Gaza corridor.
The attacks targeted included a variety of Hamas commando operational headquarters which were staging areas for the invasion.
In addition, the IDF killed Mohammed Abu Shamala, a senior Hamas naval commander.
An airstrike hit his home, which the IDF said also was being used to store naval weapons.