- The IDF struck hundreds of targets in Gaza over the last 24 hours, focusing on both Hamas operatives and military targets, including weapons storage sites, underground terrorist tunnels, command centers, observation posts and more.
- An IDF soldier was killed by an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip near Kissufim
- Attacks from Lebanon on Israel’s northern border continued, including an attempted rocket launch, two UAVs that were launched and the identification of an anti-tank missile cell. These attacks were prevented by swift IDF action.
Continue reading for a note from Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, key links for recommended reading, and a more in-depth arena overview.
Field Notes from Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, IDF Spokesperson to International Media
For a military spokesperson, the tension between what can and can’t be published is a dilemma that lies front and center.
Every briefing, every publication and every interview requires careful consideration on what intelligence sources may be jeopardized and what sensitive military capabilities may be exposed.
This war, we’ve been forced to make another decision, far more gruesome in its nature. When Hamas attacked men, women and children across southern Israel on October 7th , it did so in the most brutal fashion. And as one would expect from a sophisticated terrorist organization, it proudly documented those horrors. Meticulously.
If you had asked me three weeks ago, it would be clear to me that those images and videos would never see the light of day.
I’d be wrong.
Before we had even finished fighting off the terrorists in southern Israel, the denials started to come in. This reached a peak with absurd demands, requesting signed medical declarations about an incinerated baby.
So today, we hosted over 200 journalists to sit through a screening of the terrorists’ headcams. For nearly an hour, the screen played horrors and some of the most hardened journalists cried.
This is not a war we wanted. This is not a screening that I would have ever dreamed we would run, not in my worst nightmare. But today, I – together with hundreds of journalists and their readers – stood witness.
