Israel expects the war in Gaza to continue for “many more months,” according to the military chief of staff, as Israeli officials signaled that they would press on with their assault despite international calls for a cease-fire.
The chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said on Tuesday that Israeli forces were focusing their efforts in southern Gaza after making progress against Hamas in the north. But he added that while Israel had killed “many terrorists and Hamas commanders,” destroyed parts of the militant group’s underground infrastructure and captured weapons, it was likely that some Hamas fighters remained in the northern part of the enclave.
“There are no magic solutions or shortcuts in the fundamental dismantling of a terrorist organization,” General Halevi said at a televised news briefing in southern Israel after returning from Gaza.
On Wednesday, the military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, indicated that Israeli operations in the southern part of Gaza could intensify. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have fled to the south of the territory after the Israeli military in October began demanding evacuations of the north and then launched a ground invasion.
“There is considerable work left in southern Gaza,” Admiral Hagari said in a statement.
The comments were the latest signals from Israel that the war would not end soon, even as its strongest ally, the United States, has been pushing for a dialing down of the intensity of the military operations, which have killed more than 20,000 people in Gaza, according to health authorities there. The Gazan health ministry’s figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. It estimates that women and children make up about 70 percent of the dead.
The Israeli government has said that it is planning for a new phase of the fighting, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top military leaders have vowed in public statements that Israel will not end the war until all of its goals are achieved.
While the United States has not called for a cease-fire, differences have emerged between the Biden administration and Israeli officials over plans for the war’s scope, timetable and plans for governing Gaza after fighting ends. This week, Ron Dermer, a top adviser to the Israeli prime minister, is visiting Washington for meetings with American officials that would focus on the next phase of the war and postwar Gaza, an Israeli official said.
In his remarks on Tuesday, General Halevi said that the military was focusing on Khan Younis, the largest city in the southern part of Gaza, and also on the enclave’s central region.
General Halevi emphasized the complexity of close-quarters combat, saying that it would take time for the military to achieve its goals, namely dismantling Hamas and securing the release of hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attack, which Israeli officials estimate killed 1,200 people..
He emphasized that the military would continue to target Hamas’s leadership and that there would be no “return to the pre-Oct. 7 reality,” an apparent reference to Hamas’s rule in Gaza before its military wing invaded southern Israel.
Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.