Attached are the full remarks of the Chief of the General Staff: “Over ten

Attached are the full remarks of the Chief of the General Staff: “Over ten months, and the achievements are very high. I say this to the Southern Command and to the 162nd Division that has been excellent since the beginning of the war, and I’m telling you this, the brigade commanders who have been here from the start and those who replaced others along the way are doing very high-quality work. I measure first and foremost the dismantling of Hamas; this is the most important mission because when you excel in dismantling Hamas, we will be able to later tell Kerem Shalom, Holit, Ein HaShlosha—come back, it is safe to live here. And I measure the dismantling of Hamas. The number of terrorists eliminated, the number of operatives eliminated, the amount of infrastructure destroyed—you are making very good progress here.
The second thing is to ensure that these blows and the destruction of terrorist infrastructure are such that they [Hamas] won’t be able to lift their heads here, therefore, make sure it is planned in such a way that we truly know how to destroy all [terrorist infrastructure] here and not leave any stepping stones to build things forward.
The next thing is the return of the hostages. This is the goal of the war. We are working on it with great determination, and I want you to know that what you are doing above and below ground has a significant impact on this. Hamas needs to know that every day that it holds our hostages will be more bitter for it than the previous day. And we will intensify until we succeed in bringing back the hostages and then not allow Hamas to lift its head either.
The third thing is the Philadelphi Corridor. The Philadelphi Corridor is important because it deals with strengthening our position. We are preparing for all scenarios that the political level may decide. If they decide that we stay in the Philadelphi Corridor, we will know how to stay there and stay strong. If they decide that we monitor and raid every time we have an indication, we will know how to do that. We will know how to work well. I see our operational freedom in Gaza; see, we activated the 98th Division more than a week ago. You see, there is no place in Gaza today where your troops cannot reach. There is no such thing. We know how to get anywhere in a short time, and this achievement must be maintained; this strength must be preserved”.