IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Chief Ronen Bar met in Hamas’s southern Gaza capital of Khan Yunis on Monday night to demonstrate IDF progress.
Halevi said, “we are deepening our gains in northern Gaza, the South, and underground.”
Bar stated, “There is no force which can stand up to the combined force” of the IDF soldiers and the Shin Bet combat forces.
In a meeting in Khan Yunis with the two chiefs, IDF Southern Commander Maj.-Gen. Yaron Finkleman, the Division 98 Commander and the IDF Commandos chief all provided the latest updates on Israeli forces in the South, now eight days into the southern operation.
In addition, the IDF said that more than 500 Palestinians have been arrested over the last four weeks and have been taken to be interrogated by the Shin Bet and IDF intelligence Unit 504.
Among them are 350 from Hamas, and 120 from Islamic Jihad.
"Making progress in battle"
At a Monday night press conference, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “we are making progress in battle and deepening our achievements.”
Gallant spoke directly to Hamas Chief Yahya Sinwar, telling him either to surrender or face death on the battlefield.
He said that Hamas terrorists in Jabalya and Shejaia are being brought down, even though they had thought they were unbeatable. “They are on the verge of falling apart,” he said.
Next, he said that Hamas forces who surrender are saying they do not have enough ammunition or food.
Gallant noted that many of those surrendering were involved in the October 7 massacre.
Questioned about a security zone around Gaza, Gallant responded that anything which serves the military campaign is something Israel needs to do, and that the fighting will not be short. On the flip side, the defense minister said, “there is no intent to stay permanently in the Gaza Strip.”
Further, he added that IDF commanders are taking big risks in a variety of strategic directions to save the lives of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas.
Pressed as to whether the US is setting a deadline for Israeli operations, he replied, “The war will end when its goals are achieved… I take with seriousness what America does… and we will find a way to help the US to help us.”
IDF death toll passes 100
Despite Israel’s ongoing albeit slow progress, Hamas managed to fire a barrage of rockets on Tel Aviv and the country’s center as the IDF announced on Monday that its death toll of fallen soldiers since the invasion had crossed the 100 mark, reaching 103.
Although rockets fired from Gaza at Israel, and especially at Tel Aviv and other central areas, have dropped dramatically to around 40 sirens per day as compared to the start of the war, the Gaza terror group has maintained its capability to reach sensitive parts of the country.
Three soldiers – IDF Maj. (res.) Roman Bronshtein, 46, Cpt. (res.) Eliya Yanovsky, 24, and Master-Sgt. Ari Yehiel Zenilman, 32 – fell in battle in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said Monday afternoon.
The IDF had already announced the names of four more fallen soldiers on Monday morning.
One of them, Warrant Officer (Res.) Gideon Ilani, 35, of Asael, fought in the 2855th Battalion. Ilani was killed in battle in Gaza.
Two soldiers fell fighting in the 8111th Battalion in southern Gaza: Warrant Officer (Res.) Etay Perry, 36, from Modi’in; and Major (Res.) Eviatar Cohen, 42, from Kfar Saba.
Lastly, Major (Res.) Gal Becher, 34, of Oranit, an instructional officer in the 36th Brigade, was killed in a military road accident in southern Israel.
Some of the soldiers died in an ambush near a tunnel in southern Gaza.
They were killed after IDF forces thought they had cleared the area of Hamas, but it appears that a lookout from another area may have remotely detonated an improvised explosive.
Meanwhile, a Hezbollah MP warned that Israeli airstrikes that caused widespread damage in the town of Aitaroun near the Israeli-Lebanese border on Sunday were a “new escalation,” adding that the terrorist group would continue its attacks on Israel, in a statement to Reuters.
Hassan Fadlallah warned that the terrorist movement would respond to the “escalation” in new ways, be it “in the nature of the weapons [used] or the targeted sites.”
Lebanese media portrayed the IDF’s response to Hezbollah attacks on Sunday as a significant escalation compared to other clashes along the border in recent weeks.
On Monday morning, at least six rockets were fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel and were intercepted by the Iron Dome, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. The military responded with artillery fire and multiple rounds of airstrikes targeting several locations along the Lebanese border.
Additionally on Monday, Lebanon’s Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported that a gradual escalation had been taking place in recent days, coinciding with a demand by Israel that Hezbollah withdraw to north of the Litani River in Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
The Nidaa al-Watan report noted that the strike on Aitaroun was the first in which “an entire neighborhood has been destroyed in a southern town,” saying that this raised concerns that “the Gaza war model of widespread destruction... is beginning to rear its head on the Lebanese front.”
IDF sources confirmed that the military has somewhat escalated its attacks and responses in the North.
Gallant said at his press conference that either there needs to be a deal with Hezbollah to move its Radwan and anti-tank missile forces back from the border, or there will be a need for a military operation to move them back.
He added that Hezbollah has lost far more than 100 members of its forces, given that it coordinates with other terror groups and is excluding losses of those terror groups from its public numbers.
Questioned as to whether the IDF had used white phosphorus in battle in Lebanon, he responded vaguely, “we follow international law.”
Hezbollah announced on Monday morning that two of the movement’s members were killed amid the intensifying clashes.
Last week, Gallant told the leaders of communities near the northern border what he said at his press conference: that Israel was attempting to reach a diplomatic solution in which Hezbollah would retreat to the Litani River, but was also prepared to remove the terrorist group through military means from the area near the border.
During a visit to Israeli forces along the Lebanese border on Sunday, Halevi stressed that security needs to be restored to the northern front, and that “there is a military way to do this, the beginning of which is also what you are doing here—to strike, to deter, to kill Hezbollah operatives, to show our superiority—and it can also come in the form of an offensive, an attack and a war.
“The State of Israel has never gone and said war is the first solution we will try,” he said, “but we understand that the current situation should end with a very, very clear change.”
Ali Damush, the deputy chairman of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, rejected statements by Israeli officials saying that the group “will not allow the equations to be changed,” with some reports saying that the terrorist group would not withdraw its forces any sooner than the IDF would move its forces back to Haifa.
On Sunday, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said that a watchtower inside a UNIFIL position near Ibel Qameh in the country’s southern region was hit by shelling on Saturday afternoon. No injuries were reported in the incident.
“Any targeting of UNIFIL positions and any use of the vicinity of our positions to launch attacks across the Blue Line is unacceptable,” the interim force said. “After over two months of active shelling along the Blue Line, the potential for a miscalculation that could trigger a wider conflict is increasing.”