IDF chief: Battle 'won't cease' till Hamas is defeated; PM says 'decisive stage' beginning

[ad_1] The prime minister and IDF chief vowed Tuesday to press on with the warfare in opposition to Hamas, because the Israel Protection Forces referred to as up tens of hundreds of reservists for the approaching conquest of Gaza Metropolis.

Premier Benjamin Netanyahu stated the warfare was getting into its “decisive stage,” whereas IDF Chief of Workers Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir informed troops that the Gaza Metropolis marketing campaign was already transferring ahead, that operations can be intensified and expanded, and that the IDF wouldn't settle for something lower than the whole defeat of Hamas.

“We won't cease the warfare till we defeat this enemy,” Zamir stated throughout a go to to central Israel’s Nachshonim base, the place he spoke with newly mobilized reservists and personnel from the Technological and Logistics Directorate.

“Hamas could have no place to cover from us. Wherever we find them, whether or not they're senior or junior figures – we strike all of them, on a regular basis,” he stated. “Now we have already begun the Gaza maneuver. We're already getting into locations we've got by no means entered earlier than and working there with braveness, energy, valor, and a unprecedented spirit.”

Each males’s speeches got here because the IDF referred to as up tens of hundreds of reservists for the offensive in Gaza Metropolis, which Netanyahu has portrayed as Hamas’s final stronghold — having final 12 months additionally offered Rafah as its final bastion.

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By signing up, you comply with the terms The decision-up — which has reportedly seen fewer soldiers report for duty because the warfare nears the two-year mark — was going down because the IDF focused Hamas commanders, and as Hamas-run Gazan authorities reported dozens killed throughout the Strip, together with youngsters allegedly struck by an IDF drone at a water distribution web site.

Troopers prepared their gear amid huge IDF reservist callup on September 2, 2025. (Israel Protection Forces)

The IDF stated on Tuesday that troops within the enclave had killed dozens of terror operatives up to now month who had been planning assaults in opposition to IDF forces within the Strip’s north and heart.

These included Ahmad Abu Daf, who was serving as a deputy firm commander within the Zeitoun Battalion, and who helped lead dozens of assaults and ambushes in opposition to IDF forces, along with recruiting new operatives into Hamas. One other key operative killed was Taleb Sidqi Taleb Abu Atiwi, a crew commander in Hamas’s elite Nukhba drive who infiltrated Israeli territory through the terror group’s October 7, 2023, bloodbath, the military stated.

The navy additionally confirmed an earlier report that it had killed a Hamas terrorist who held Israeli hostages Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Naama Levy. All three had been launched throughout a ceasefire at the start of the 12 months.

The navy additionally stated Tuesday that the Air Power had struck and destroyed buildings in Shejaiya and Zeitoun, within the Gaza Metropolis space, that had been used as assembly locations for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen to plan assaults.

The IDF has urged civilians, support teams and medical staff to evacuate the world because the offensive ramps up. And in a social media submit on Tuesday, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee urged all of Gaza’s residents to evacuate to a humanitarian zone within the Strip’s coastal space in preparation for the growth of preventing within the northern metropolis. The IDF is reportedly anticipated to launch its main operation to take over Gaza Metropolis in mid-September.

In a submit on X, Adraee stated that the coastal al-Mawasi space will see improved humanitarian companies, together with healthcare, water, and meals.

He additionally warned that approaching or returning to fight zones or areas the place IDF forces are working endangers the lives of civilians.

Latest experiences estimate that just some 10,000 of Gaza Metropolis’s roughly a million residents and displaced Gazans have evacuated to the south within the three weeks since Israel introduced it might empty the town of its civilian inhabitants.

Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza Strip transfer with their belongings alongside the Sea Street, in Gaza Metropolis, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photograph/Jehad Alshrafi)

Netanyahu stated in a video handle to the reservists on Tuesday that Israel was “transferring towards whole victory.”

“What started in Gaza should finish in Gaza,” he stated. “Now we stand earlier than the decisive stage. I imagine in you, I belief you, and your complete nation embraces you.”

Netanyahu has claimed a number of occasions for the reason that October 7 assault that Israel is nearing victory within the 23-month-old warfare. Zamir and different officers have warned that the Gaza Metropolis offensive might endanger hostages and troopers, and urged Israel to comply with a brief ceasefire and deal that Hamas stated it accepted final month and that will launch 10 of the some 20 residing hostages believed to be held by the phobia group. In whole, terror teams in Gaza are holding 48 hostages.

Israel has not responded to that settlement, although Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a Netanyahu confidant, reportedly informed mediators that Israel has but to rule it out.

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer speaks on the Jewish Information Syndicate convention in Jerusalem, on April 28, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

As an alternative, current cupboard conferences have targeted on the Gaza Metropolis operation, which, in keeping with a report on the Kan public broadcaster, might price NIS 25 billion ($7.4 billion). That price ticket might necessitate cuts throughout different authorities departments, the community reported.

On Tuesday, Gaza’s Hamas-run civil protection company stated Israeli forces killed not less than 82 individuals throughout the Strip. In a single reported strike, an IDF drone hit a water distribution level in al-Mawasi within the south, the place, in keeping with native media, not less than 11 individuals had been killed, together with seven youngsters.

The IDF stated in response to an inquiry that it was not conscious of the strike.

Different deaths reported on Tuesday included dozens close to support distribution websites in southern Gaza, Palestinian medics stated.

13 extra Palestinians, together with three youngsters, died of malnutrition and hunger in Gaza over the previous 24 hours, the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry stated on Tuesday. That raised the reported demise toll from such causes for the reason that starting of the warfare to not less than 361, together with 130 youngsters, the overwhelming majority in current weeks.

Israeli troopers transfer on armored personnel carriers (APC) close to the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photograph/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Exterior Gaza Metropolis’s Shifa Hospital, white plastic physique baggage with corpses had been laid out on the road. Crowds wailed for slain kinfolk.

“We fled [our homes] with nothing. They went to get garments and meals from their houses, to carry garments for his or her youngsters and meals for themselves… and look now! They got here again as martyrs!” stated Nasr Nasr, a relative of a few of the lifeless.

The Hamas-run Gaza well being ministry says greater than 62,000 individuals within the Strip have been killed or are presumed lifeless within the preventing up to now, although the toll can't be verified and doesn't differentiate between civilians and fighters.

Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and one other 1,600 terrorists inside Israel through the October 7 onslaught. Israel has stated it seeks to attenuate civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas makes use of Gaza’s civilians as human shields, preventing from civilian areas together with houses, hospitals, colleges and mosques.

Israel’s toll within the floor offensive in opposition to Hamas in Gaza and in navy operations alongside the border with the Strip stands at 460.

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