Israeli Major General Tomer Bar says Hamas will be defeated soon, Israel is ready to face Hezbollah

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Thursday, June 27, 2024

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Major General Tomer Bar said on Thursday in an Israeli Air Force graduation ceremony that Hamas "will soon be defeated" after "the longest war in our history since the War of Independence." Bar also said that they were "ready against Hezbollah" and that "we have the means for it, we have the capabilities, and certainly, we have the patience and fighting spirit."

On Sunday, during an interview with Israeli Channel 14, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "intense" fighting against Hamas in Rafah was "about to end." In the statement, he said that "It doesn’t mean that the war is about to end, but the war in its intense phase is about to end in Rafah." Netanyahu also said that "the goal is to return the kidnapped and uproot the Hamas regime."

Netanyahu said after the end of the intense fighting, Israel would "face north" which was "for defensive purposes but also to bring the (displaced) residents back home." He further said that they "are obligated to return the residents of the North to their homes" and "will do what is necessary."

Last Monday, the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) had reported that hundreds of gunmen had been killed in Rafah. They also reported that half of the Hamas fighting force in Rafah was destroyed. The battalions in the South and East are generally considered to be mostly or totally destroyed. The IDF said that it has found 130 access shafts, including "20 tunnels suspected of being smuggling tunnels from the Egyptian Sinai." At the time, the IDF had said that operations in Rafah would continue until "we have decisively destroyed the Rafah Brigade."

Rafah was believed to have contained 8,000 Hamas militants before the Rafah offensive.

This came amidst the recent escalation after the October 7, 2023 attack. The attack killed 1,139 Israelis, including 373 members of the security forces, 695 civilians (including 36 children), and 71 foreigners. In addition, nearly 250 Israelis were taken hostage. During the attack, more than 3,000 Hamas gunmen crossed the border, as well as nearly 6,000 rockets were fired. Sources indicate numerous acts of sexual assault resulted during this conflict. Thousands of rockets are also reported to have been fired during the attack. In response, Israel declared war on Hamas and mobilized 350,000 reservists. Up to May 2024, Israel says they have killed 14,000 terrorists and 16,000 civilians during the war, while Hamas says that 35,000 people have been killed.

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