Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks during a joint press conference with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin (not pictured), in Tel Aviv on December 18, 2023.
Wrapping up his press conference with Defense Minister Gallant, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is asked if the US pressure on Israel to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza could spell reduced air bombardments and other shifts in the fighting that might cause greater loss of life among Israeli soldiers.
Regarding “the nature of the strikes and the amount of collateral damage,” Austin stresses in response, “the protection of our troops is important to all of us” — to Israel and the US.
He says Gaza is a complex battle space, with a dense population, and “that makes it very very difficult to conduct any military operation.”
Also, he notes, Hamas routinely uses civilians as shields, and fights from “near hospitals, mosques, churches, you name it. That adds to the complexity.”
“It requires a very professional force and that force has to learn each step of the way,” he says. He and Gallant today “discussed techniques that they [the IDF] are changing as they conduct operations in the south. All of us learn… They were a very professional force going into this… Taking lessons learned in the north, they’ve applied some of those lessons in the south, and I’m sure that’ll continue.”
Gallant says Israel and the US are having “transparent and frank discussions” on the conduct of the war. “We share everything,” he says warmly of Austin.
Gallant touts the IDF’s “meaningful” successes on the battlefield, but says “eliminating the Hamas leadership is an ongoing goal that will be achieved — hopefully soon, but it will be achieved.”
He says the IDF “will continue to operate on different levels of intensity according to the situation in the region.”
“Soon we will be able to distinguish between different areas in Gaza,” says Gallant, and “in every area where we achieve our mission, we will be able to transition gradually to the next phase and start working on bringing back local population” — probably starting first in the north.
“I’m not defining any region, and this is an ongoing discussion,” he stresses.
Gallant is asked what the benchmarks are for moving to the next phase of the war, and why Israel has not yet shifted to more precise, targeted operations. And Austin is asked a similar question and whether he thinks Israel is on track to a strategic victory.
Austin answers first: “Any large-scale military operation will have phases” in which the focus shifts. “As you transition from one phase to another, that doesn’t signal an end to the operation,” he stresses. “You’re doing different things” — with higher intensity fighting” in one phase, and, say, more humanitarian assistance in another.
Israel will define the phases of the campaign for itself, Austin says. When shifting between phases, the difficult thing is making sure you have “everything accounted for,” he notes, and “that requires detailed planning.”
Gallant stresses that “by the end of the war, as long as it takes,” Israel must get its hostages back and destroy Hamas’s military and governance capabilities.
The military goal “has certain parameters, including the amount of battalions that we need to dismantle, and the chain of command, and the supreme military leadership and so forth,” he says.
He says Israel shapes its war plan to meet the goals. “Circumstances change… and you do something different… The intensity in the first phase is a given, but in other phases we will concentrate on certain issues, for instance, engaging and detecting the supreme leadership of Hamas and others.”
“All in all, there is not a clock that is running and we have to obey a certain day.” Rather, he explains, “we need to get to different performances on the ground before we move to the next phase. I believe will find the proper time to do so.”
“We will prevail,” he concludes. “We will dismantle Hamas, otherwise we will not be able to exist and live in the way we want to live in this region. Because there is a price to deterrence. And they need to know [in the wake of October 7] that if they kill or kidnap 1,500 people including kids and women, this is the end of Hamas.”
As the two men shake hands and leave the press conference, Gallant says to Austin: “Thank you, Secretary. You help us a lot.”
