Gaza War Will Continue for ‘Many Months,’ Israel’s Military Chief Says

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi addresses soldiers of the 162nd Armored Division, Oct. 15, 2023. (IDF) (IDF)

Israel’s military chief foresees months of conflict with Hamas in Gaza, underscoring the need for persistent efforts to dismantle the group and ensure lasting security.

By Algemeiner

Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza will likely continue for several months, the Israeli military chief said on Tuesday.

“The war will go on for many months, and we will employ different methods to maintain our achievements for a long time,” Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), told reporters in a televised statement on the Israel-Gaza border.

“There are no magic solutions. There are no short cuts in dismantling a terrorist organization — only determined and persistent fighting,” Halevi said. “We will reach Hamas’ leadership too, whether it takes a week or if it takes months.”

Israel launched its military campaign of air strikes and ground operations against Hamas in Gaza after the Palestinian terror group’s Oct. 7 invasion of the Jewish state and massacre of civilians across southern Israeli communities. Israeli leaders have said they seek to decimate Hamas in order to eliminate the terror group as a threat.

Highlighting the campaign’s success, Halevi noted Israel has completed most of its military objectives in northern Gaza.

“The Israeli army is close to completing the dismantling of Hamas battalions in the northern Gaza Strip,” he said. “We eliminated many terrorists and commanders; some of them surrendered to our forces and we took hundreds of prisoners. We destroyed many underground infrastructures and weapons.”

However, Halevi warned that in “this dense urban area, where terrorists are dressed as civilians, it cannot be said that we killed all of them.”

Israel is now concentrating its efforts “in the south of the Gaza Strip, Khan Younis, the central camps, and beyond,” the military chief continued. “And we will continue to both preserve and deepen the achievement in the north of the Gaza Strip.”

Halevi said the IDF “will not allow a return to the security reality before Oct. 7, and we will not allow such an event to be repeated.”

Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas murdered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 240 others as hostages during their Oct. 7 onslaught.

“We said from its first moments that this would be a long war because it was right to set far-reaching goals, and we will reach far — that’s why the duration will be long,” Halevi said. “Ultimately, will we be able to say that there is no enemy surrounding the state of Israel? I think that’s too ambitious, but we will create a new security situation.”

Israeli officials have reportedly told their US counterparts that the high-intensity phase of the Gaza offensive will likely end in the coming weeks, to be followed by a more targeted approach aimed at taking out Hamas leaders and other high-value targets.