IDF Chief of Staff L.t.-Gen. Herzi Halevi addressed the Nahal Brigade in the Beit Hanoun area of the Gaza Strip on Sunday where he affirmed the IDF “bear responsibility" for the hostages’ plight in Gaza.
Halevi’s comments came on the first day of an Israel-Hamas ceasefire which will see the release of three female hostages and a total of 33 hostages in its first phase.
Bringing home the hostages
Since October 6, 2024, Halevi said that the IDF had eliminated some 3000 terrorists and apprehended hundreds more but now are “tak[ing] pride in stepping back to extend a hand in order to bring home dozens of living hostages, and we will also take pride and be determined to return going forward to fighting.”
“Right now, this is our position of strength, and look, when our people—civilians, soldiers—are held by the enemy in very harsh conditions,” Halevi said. “We also bear responsibility for the fact that they are there. We are proud to make the effort to bring them home."
Halevi also claimed that Hamas had agreed to the ceasefire-hostage deal thanks to the “difficult circumstances” created for them by the IDF’s operations in the Gaza Strip.