IDF Chief Spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari on Friday said that the IDF was prepared for a long war and would "be ready for any action needed to accomplish the war's aims," when questioned about how soon an IDF invasion of Gaza would take place.
He was asked about the possibility of a ground invasion in the context of the IDF's special warning this morning for residents of Gaza City and the surrounding areas to evacuate to southern Gaza.
Besides accomplishing the war aims, Hagari said, "unlike Hamas-ISISI's actions, we act as much as possible to avoid harm to innocent civilians. We act out of ethics and values. We have been evacuating people from [Gaza] neighborhoods," during the airstrikes, but sometimes when they try to flee "Hamas stops them and wants human shields."
"Hamas is managing the war from civilian areas. They want to show dead Palestinian civilians to the world, when the war crimes are from Hamas," he added.
In addition, Hagari said, the IDF is gaining intelligence from Hamas captives, "we have many Hamas-ISIS prisoners in our hands. We are questioning them and giving them lots of information about how this murderous regime planned this war."
"We need to be ready for a long war. The public must understand this is a war...The spirit and support of Israel we in the IDF are seeing [from the civilian population] gives us strong resilience. The nation of Israel's volunteering spirit brings us pride," said the chief IDF spokesman.
Ground invasion could start as early as Saturday
Sources have told the Jerusalem Post multiple times this week that the counter-ground invasion would start sometime on or after Saturday, October 14.
It is also possible that the IDF may invade from more than one spot, despite only issuing a warning in the Gaza City Region.