National Security Adviser and National Security Council Director Tzachi Hanegbi, today (Tuesday, 31 October 2023) [translated from Hebrew]:
"I will dedicate my opening remarks to clarifying to the public the policy that the political leadership has decided upon and the manner in which it is being implemented by the IDF, beginning from the start of the war until these very hours in which there is combat in all sectors.
The operational goal that was defined for the IDF is unequivocal: To destroy the military and governing capabilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad so that there will no longer be a threat to the citizens of Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Since this decision was made, the IDF has been carrying out its missions with force and thoroughness in several stages, as the IDF Spokesperson has well described in his daily reports. The first stage – blocking and clearing terrorists from the south – is behind us. The second stage began immediately afterward. This is the stage of powerful and precise strikes against all enemy networks including a high-quality intelligence base, from land, sea and air. The stage being currently carried out is that of ground activity being conducted in the northern Gaza Strip.
This is a difficult campaign that entails fierce combat. There is no combat without a painful price. We are a people that fights amidst the pain. We are determined – despite the pain – to win.
The additional supreme goal, as the Prime Minister made clear, is to create the conditions for bringing the hostages back to their homes and their families. As was revealed yesterday, the military effort serves both the effort to bring back the hostages as well as the aspiration to destroy the enemy's military and governing capabilities.
In the northern sector, the decision is to be prepared for all developments, to carry out a strong defense by a large-scale mobilization of reserves that are already deployed on the Lebanese border, the evacuation of civilians from the line of defense in order to ensure that their well-being is being safeguarded in the event of a head-on clash with Hezbollah, and attacking enemy networks in response to his provocations everywhere and without hesitation.
In order to realize the goals of the war, especially the destruction of Hamas as the armed sovereign in Gaza, we need to make a mental change. The Cabinet, as well as the heads of the security services, have parted forever with operative concepts that have been in our consciousness since Hamas first seized control of the Gaza Strip 16 years ago. All of the terms of the past are gone and have dissipated. There are no more 'rounds', 'operations' or other amorphous terms such as 'strengthening deterrence', 'exacting a price', or 'etching in their consciousness'. The massacre of October 7th dissolved the illusions that we are facing an enemy that would not dare to risk his absolute destruction.
As soon as the fact became clear – that Hamas is like ISIS, it has no constraints and views the residents of Gaza as nothing more than human dust that provides it with cover – there was no more doubt in our hearts. Hamas, with its psychopathic leadership and its sadistic murderers, must cease to be. This was the unanimous decision of the Cabinet and this is the mission that the IDF has been tasked with carrying out.
I would like to clarify the term 'unanimous' in order not to do a disservice to lengthy discussions, and very long hours of thorough and in-depth discussion that are taking place in the War Cabinet, the expanded Security Cabinet and in the daily assessments held by the Prime Minister. In these discussions, there are exchanges of views, thoughts and various approaches. The issues are both excrutiating and fateful; they are not all cut from the same cloth. Not all of them have the same outlook. But at the end of the day, at times well into the night, a joint decision is formulated.
This is the decision. These monstrous terrorist organizations must never again be allowed to control the Gaza Strip. I believe that this is also the view of a decisive majority of the Israeli public.
On the diplomatic front, that the President of the United States has stood alongside Israel is of immense value. It has allowed us to continuously conduct almost an entire month and conduct a campaign of unprecedented strength in the coming period as well.
In order to maintain this support, we are obliged to continue, just as we have been doing since the start of the war, distinguishing between murderers and non-combatants; to persuade the population in the northern Gaza Strip to relocate to protected areas in the south; allowing foreign assistance forces to provide food, water and medicines to all those who have responded to our call and are presently in the south; to call for providing life-saving medical treatment to all who need it, not in the hospitals that today are command centers for terrorism, that are Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control centers, but in alternative hospitals in Egypt, which are in a protected area, or on hospital ships from various countries, that have responded to the Prime Minister's initiative and are due to arrive off the coast of Gaza.
This is our commitment as a country that acts according to the laws of war. This is also the way to increase and preserve the legitimacy without which it would be very difficult to conduct the military campaign until the goal is achieved. Of course, we are not searching for legitimacy from antisemites, which we see popping up from their burrows whenever they smell Jewish blood. But there are many friends in the world and the war has proven that they are with us, sharing our feelings and also sharing the goals of the war, as I have phrased them here."
National Security Adviser and National Security Council Director Tzachi Hanegbi, today (Tuesday, 31 October 2023) [translated from Hebrew]:
"I will dedicate my opening remarks to clarifying to the public the policy that the political leadership has decided upon and the manner in which it is being implemented by the IDF, beginning from the start of the war until these very hours in which there is combat in all sectors.
The operational goal that was defined for the IDF is unequivocal: To destroy the military and governing capabilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad so that there will no longer be a threat to the citizens of Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Since this decision was made, the IDF has been carrying out its missions with force and thoroughness in several stages, as the IDF Spokesperson has well described in his daily reports. The first stage – blocking and clearing terrorists from the south – is behind us. The second stage began immediately afterward. This is the stage of powerful and precise strikes against all enemy networks including a high-quality intelligence base, from land, sea and air. The stage being currently carried out is that of ground activity being conducted in the northern Gaza Strip.
This is a difficult campaign that entails fierce combat. There is no combat without a painful price. We are a people that fights amidst the pain. We are determined – despite the pain – to win.
The additional supreme goal, as the Prime Minister made clear, is to create the conditions for bringing the hostages back to their homes and their families. As was revealed yesterday, the military effort serves both the effort to bring back the hostages as well as the aspiration to destroy the enemy's military and governing capabilities.
In the northern sector, the decision is to be prepared for all developments, to carry out a strong defense by a large-scale mobilization of reserves that are already deployed on the Lebanese border, the evacuation of civilians from the line of defense in order to ensure that their well-being is being safeguarded in the event of a head-on clash with Hezbollah, and attacking enemy networks in response to his provocations everywhere and without hesitation.
In order to realize the goals of the war, especially the destruction of Hamas as the armed sovereign in Gaza, we need to make a mental change. The Cabinet, as well as the heads of the security services, have parted forever with operative concepts that have been in our consciousness since Hamas first seized control of the Gaza Strip 16 years ago. All of the terms of the past are gone and have dissipated. There are no more 'rounds', 'operations' or other amorphous terms such as 'strengthening deterrence', 'exacting a price', or 'etching in their consciousness'. The massacre of October 7th dissolved the illusions that we are facing an enemy that would not dare to risk his absolute destruction.
As soon as the fact became clear – that Hamas is like ISIS, it has no constraints and views the residents of Gaza as nothing more than human dust that provides it with cover – there was no more doubt in our hearts. Hamas, with its psychopathic leadership and its sadistic murderers, must cease to be. This was the unanimous decision of the Cabinet and this is the mission that the IDF has been tasked with carrying out.
I would like to clarify the term 'unanimous' in order not to do a disservice to lengthy discussions, and very long hours of thorough and in-depth discussion that are taking place in the War Cabinet, the expanded Security Cabinet and in the daily assessments held by the Prime Minister. In these discussions, there are exchanges of views, thoughts and various approaches. The issues are both excrutiating and fateful; they are not all cut from the same cloth. Not all of them have the same outlook. But at the end of the day, at times well into the night, a joint decision is formulated.
This is the decision. These monstrous terrorist organizations must never again be allowed to control the Gaza Strip. I believe that this is also the view of a decisive majority of the Israeli public.
On the diplomatic front, that the President of the United States has stood alongside Israel is of immense value. It has allowed us to continuously conduct almost an entire month and conduct a campaign of unprecedented strength in the coming period as well.
In order to maintain this support, we are obliged to continue, just as we have been doing since the start of the war, distinguishing between murderers and non-combatants; to persuade the population in the northern Gaza Strip to relocate to protected areas in the south; allowing foreign assistance forces to provide food, water and medicines to all those who have responded to our call and are presently in the south; to call for providing life-saving medical treatment to all who need it, not in the hospitals that today are command centers for terrorism, that are Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control centers, but in alternative hospitals in Egypt, which are in a protected area, or on hospital ships from various countries, that have responded to the Prime Minister's initiative and are due to arrive off the coast of Gaza.
This is our commitment as a country that acts according to the laws of war. This is also the way to increase and preserve the legitimacy without which it would be very difficult to conduct the military campaign until the goal is achieved. Of course, we are not searching for legitimacy from antisemites, which we see popping up from their burrows whenever they smell Jewish blood. But there are many friends in the world and the war has proven that they are with us, sharing our feelings and also sharing the goals of the war, as I have phrased them here."
