TEL AVIV, November 16. /TASS/. Israel is close to eliminating the entire military infrastructure in the north of the Gaza Strip, said Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.
"We are quite close to destroying the military system that existed in the northern Gaza Strip," he said to service members, according to the IDF. We will complete it, we have some finishing to do, but we are getting close to it nicely."
Halevi said the IDF will continue operations in the Gaza Strip to destroy the military capabilities of Hamas militants. The IDF is going to go into "more and more areas, and going to kill commanders and operatives and destroy the infrastructure," he said
The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and taking more than 200 hostages, including children, women and elderly people. Hamas has cast the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and started a military operation there. Israeli also strikes parts of Lebanon and Syria in retaliation for bombardments originating from these countries. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.