Israel is fighting a lengthy war, Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said on Sunday, adding that they were destroying the capabilities of their enemies in a way that they could not be rebuilt. The IDF Chief of Staff made the remarks in a missive to troops ahead of the first anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
Israel is currently battling Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon as part of a military assault triggered by the attack.
Lt Gen Halevi said this was a “long war” not only by “capabilities but also by the willpower and perseverance over time”. He added that the war was "for our right to be a free people in our land”.
Israel and Hamas have been at war since October 7, 2023, when armed men from the Palestinian militant group Hamas, based in the Gaza Strip, stormed into southern Israel. The group killed 1,200 people and captured 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
According to a report in The Times Of Israel, Lt Gen. Herzi Halevi said in his missive to the troops that, since the attack, the Israeli army had learned that it needs to be greater. He said October 7 “is not only a day of remembrance", but a day “for deep soul-searching”. He wrote in the letter that the day was also to “recognise failures and learn from them” and examine the challenges, “those that have been and those that are yet to come”.
"A year has passed, and we have defeated the military wing of Hamas, and we continue to fight against the organization’s terrorist capabilities; We have dealt a severe blow to Hezbollah, which has lost all of its senior leadership. We are not stopping – we fight, debrief, learn, and improve. We are taking an offensive, tactical, and proactive approach on all fronts, adapting our defensive strategies on all borders, and understanding that the IDF must be a greater army that takes good care of its people," he said. "We are destroying our enemies’ capabilities, and we will ensure that these capabilities are not rebuilt, so that October 7th is never repeated."
Meanwhile, President Isaac Herzog vowed to “make space for national mourning".
In a statement on Sunday, he said life had come to a halt "since all of us witnessed that monstrous cruelty of the enemy that sought to bring destruction upon the Jewish people…”
“We are all still in pain, and we seek to make space for national mourning, for the tears over the terrible disaster that struck us,” he said, announcing a three-day tour of the Gaza border communities devastated by the attack. “I pledge — we will rebuild and restore everything anew, and that rebuilding will not be complete until the hostages return home.”
The IDF has released never-before-seen footage from the October 7 onslaught, which saw dozens of Israeli families attacked in their homes by Hamas militants, who also waged bloodshed at a music festival.