Tuesday, April 22, 2025

IDF will continue to surprise Hamas, top IDF spokesperson says


The Israel Defense Forces will maintain ambiguity as its soldiers operate throughout the Gaza Strip to return the 59 hostages held by Hamas and collapse the terror organization’s abilities, IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ephraim “Effie” Defrin said during a visit to the enclave on Monday. “From the beginning of the operation, we have maintained ambiguity. This is not just a slogan—ambiguity is part of the method, part of the operational concept. We don’t want to share with Hamas what we are doing,” the spokesman said during a tour of the Morag Corridor, which separates Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah from the rest of the Strip.

“Now that we’ve finished cutting things up here, we’ll open up more and more and continue to surprise them,” Defrin told reporters on the tour.“We are operating in northern and southern Gaza, where we are now,” Defrin said in remarks shared by the military. “We are striking Hamas infrastructure. There are many achievements, both underground and above ground, and we are targeting Hamas’s chain of command—we will continue to strike consistently and persistently.

Defrin emphasized that returning the remaining hostages was not only the reason Jerusalem returned to fighting, but that the mission remains the top priority for the entire IDF, “From the head of the command, through the division commanders, down to the last soldier. “We will pursue Hamas wherever it is—whether in the northern Gaza Strip, the southern Gaza Strip, or outside the Gaza Strip—everywhere. We will not rest until we bring our hostages home, every last one of them, both the living and the dead,” vowed the top spokesperson. (Read More)