Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel has eliminated half of Hamas’ battalion commanders and has no plans of stopping until they are all dead.
The Palestinian terror organization which launched the current war in Gaza is known to have 24 battalions, consisting of a number of soldiers.
Netanyahu refused to expand on Israel’s desired security situation in Gaza, but has maintained that Israel needs to maintain a robust security presence in the Strip.
Israel has engaged in some of the heaviest fighting since the start of the war in recent days, as the Israeli Defence Forces make their way into the Hamas infested Khan Younis and Shujaiyeh.
IDF are almost certain that two more Hamas Leaders, Yayha Sinwar, and Mohemmed Deif remain underground, hidden in the tunnel systems of Khan Younis, and Israel has already destroyed a total of 30 tunnel shafts in search of them.
IDF estimates put the number of Hamas terrorists killed since the war began to be between 2000 to 5000.
Israel declared war on Hamas after 1200 of their citizens were brutally tortured, raped and killed in the streets of Israel, as Hamas extremists broke through borders and terrorized innocent civilians on the morning of Sukkot.
1500 armed fighters, many on motorcycles, stormed areas, shooting at and slaughtering people in Kibbutzim and smaller Israeli towns in the South of Israel. 240 hostages were taken back to the Gaza Strip at the time, but 110 have since returned home after a slight pause in fighting.
The latest number of total casualties in the Gaza Strip since the war began sits at 16,000, most of whom are women and children caught in the middle.
The Israeli army said on Wednesday it had struck 250 targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours and troops have found a major arms depot near a clinic and school in the north of the territory.
Hamas is known for using public buildings to hide and cover their rockets and rocket launchers, also using women and children as human shields and martyrs.
Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas and free the remaining 138 hostages, reducing much of northern Gaza to dust by bombardment, displacing 1.9 million people according to UN figures.
Israel has also approved a “minimal” increase in fuel supplies to Gaza, to prevent a “humanitarian collapse and an outbreak of epidemics in the south of the Strip. Benjamin Netanyahu further went on to say in his press conference, “We are settling accounts with all those who kidnapped, participated, murdered, slaughtered, raped and burned the daughters of our people. We will not forget, and we will not forgive.”.
