Families of fallen demand Netanyahu renew offensive, defeat Hamas

Forum HaGevura (“The Heroism Forum”) urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately return to the offensive against Hamas, in an open letter on Wednesday.

The group, composed of more than 300 families whose children were slain during the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and in the subsequent “Swords of Iron” war, reached out to the prime minister over recent developments in the Gaza Strip.

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The forum warned in the letter, a copy of which the group provided to JNS, that Hamas was exploiting the fact that Israel had stopped taking the initiative. It said restraint endangers IDF soldiers and residents of Israel’s south. It demanded that the government fulfill its commitment to defeat the terrorist organization.

The forum’s families said their information comes from officials on the ground as well as senior political officials: “Unfortunately the picture is clear: Israel is holding its fire and not initiating action, while Hamas is exploiting this well in a series of events that miraculously did not end in injuries to IDF soldiers.”

Changes on the ground were felt already on Aug. 3, at which point Israeli forces had effectively stopped targeting Hamas terrorists. According to new guidelines, all military actions required prior approval from the chief of the IDF General Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.

In an effort to allay concerns at the front, Zamir toured the Gaza sector on Aug. 5, telling soldiers that the IDF would continue to take the initiative to remove all threats and to protect the southern communities.

However, media reported a disconnect between the practice and the proclamations.

“IDF commanders with whom we spoke describe a sense of frustration,” Israel’s Mako news site reported on Aug. 6. The soldiers said they identified terrorists and terrorist infrastructure “but are forced to refrain from acting when permissions aren’t received in time.”

The IDF has limited its operations to responding to direct threats. On Wednesday, it targeted a Hamas commander in the northern Gaza Strip about to carry out an attack, and a second terrorist in the southern sector, who crossed the Yellow Line and approached the troops in a manner that posed an immediate threat. Similarly, on Tuesday, IDF troops killed a Hamas sniper preparing to fire.

The IDF’s new passive approach comes in response to directives from the political echelon.

Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly rejected the 15-point Gaza peace plan that the Board of Peace proposed in July, and which requires a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, Israel has scaled back attacks under pressure from the Trump administration, which touts the 15-point plan as a major breakthrough.

Forum HaGevura referred to these political developments, warning that dealing with Hamas “means the danger of returning to the old conceptzia [governing assumption], the same conceptzia that led us to the tragedy of October 6,” a reference to pre-Oct. 7, 2023, expectations.

The forum said that after the heavy price Israel has paid, its members could not accept any arrangement short of complete victory over Hamas. “Our loved ones fell in the war so that the State of Israel would bring about a victory over the enemy, and not so that we would return to the same reality that existed on the eve of the massacre,” the families said. “The blood that has been spilled obliges all of us to learn the lessons and make sure that the threat is removed from the root.”

The forum demanded of the prime minister that he immediately order the IDF to take the initiative, renew the attacks on Hamas and complete the mission. “Prime Minister, members of the Cabinet, you have pledged to defeat Hamas and we demand that you keep your word.”

A Forum HaGevura spokesman told JNS that the group not yet received a reply from the Prime Minister’s Office. The response from the public, however, has been overwhelmingly positive.

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