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Gaza War Will Continue for ‘Many Months,’ Israel’s Military Chief Says
Israeli army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi listens to an officer as he visits soldiers during the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Hamas, in a location given as Gaza, in this handout image released on Nov. 16, 2023. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza will likely continue for several months, the Israeli military chief said on Tuesday.
“The war will go on for many months, and we will employ different methods to maintain our achievements for a long time,” Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), told reporters in a televised statement on the Israel-Gaza border.
“There are no magic solutions. There are no short cuts in dismantling a terrorist organization — only determined and persistent fighting,” Halevi said. “We will reach Hamas’ leadership too, whether it takes a week or if it takes months.”
Israel launched its military campaign of air strikes and ground operations against Hamas in Gaza after the Palestinian terror group’s Oct. 7 invasion of the Jewish state and massacre of civilians across southern Israeli communities. Israeli leaders have said they seek to decimate Hamas in order to eliminate the terror group as a threat.
Highlighting the campaign’s success, Halevi noted Israel has completed most of its military objectives in northern Gaza.
“The Israeli army is close to completing the dismantling of Hamas battalions in the northern Gaza Strip,” he said. “We eliminated many terrorists and commanders; some of them surrendered to our forces and we took hundreds of prisoners. We destroyed many underground infrastructures and weapons.”
However, Halevi warned that in “this dense urban area, where terrorists are dressed as civilians, it cannot be said that we killed all of them.”
Israel is now concentrating its efforts “in the south of the Gaza Strip, Khan Younis, the central camps, and beyond,” the military chief continued. “And we will continue to both preserve and deepen the achievement in the north of the Gaza Strip.”
Halevi said the IDF “will not allow a return to the security reality before Oct. 7, and we will not allow such an event to be repeated.”
Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas murdered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 240 others as hostages during their Oct. 7 onslaught.
“We said from its first moments that this would be a long war because it was right to set far-reaching goals, and we will reach far — that’s why the duration will be long,” Halevi said. “Ultimately, will we be able to say that there is no enemy surrounding the state of Israel? I think that’s too ambitious, but we will create a new security situation.”
Israeli officials have reportedly told their US counterparts that the high-intensity phase of the Gaza offensive will likely end in the coming weeks, to be followed by a more targeted approach aimed at taking out Hamas leaders and other high-value targets.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
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