IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi stated yesterday that the IDF will work hard with local leaders of northern border communities to establish a new security dynamic, which will make them feel secure about returning to their homes.
“We made a hard decision to evacuate the northern residents,” he told community leaders, “and I have tremendous appreciation for how you have embodied resilience and cool-headedness, which has allowed us to fight.
“We will continue to prepare together with local leaders for the return of residents, including the timing, through dialogue and with the understanding that we cannot return to the reality which existed before the war.”
Despite the promise, neither Halevi nor any other senior Israeli officials have given any specifics about how far they are willing to go in terms of action against Hezbollah, and pushing its Radwan special forces away from the Israel-Lebanon border, in order to convince northern residents to return.
Northern residents, officials will not return if IDF doesn't do more the respond
Many residents and officials have pledged that, after seeing the October 7 invasion in the South, they will not return if the IDF does not do more than merely respond to Hezbollah attacks, as it has done to date.
In a later speech in the North, Halevi stressed that the IDF is ready to continue fighting once the ceasefire ends in the coming days.
“The IDF is ready today to continue fighting. We are using the days of respite as part of the [hostage release] outline for learning, strengthening readiness, and approving the operational plans for the continuation,” said Halevi.
Halevi also pleaded with the media to pause its probes into which IDF intelligence and high command officials failed to heed potential warnings about Hamas’s October 7 invasion.
Though in the early weeks of the war, the media were more restrained on the issue, as the war has worn on and different political and defense officials have viewed themselves as vulnerable, more failures have been leaked, especially in efforts to put blame on others.
Additionally, the IDF yesterday released the names of three more soldiers who were killed on October 7, whose bodies were taken by Hamas. They were identified as Tomer Yaakov Ahimas, 20, Kiril Brodski, 19, and Shaked Dahan, 19.