Northern Command chief: Don’t count the casualties
After 10 days of fighting on northern border, Maj.Gen. Udi Adam explains: War costs lives. We need to show strength and determination. Regarding Nasrallah, he says, ‘I believe we’ll get to him in the end’
Northern Command Chief Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam noted Friday that the fighting in the north was highly demanding and casualties were unavoidable. “This is a demanding operation and we are at war. War costs lives. Civilians will be killed too. I suggest not counting the dead. We need to show strength and determination,” Adam said during a briefing Friday held near the site of an IAF helicopter accident Thursday night. Adam also addressed the battle in which Egoz unit fighters were killed.
The army officer clarified that in the past two days, the aim of army operations was to “find and locate terror nests, from where Hizbullah operatives fire Katyushas deep into Israel. These operations are carried out on Lebanese territory. They are not easy and are carried out with intense determination by the most elite soldiers. They are showing courage, strength of spirit, professionalism and uncompromising fighting.”
According to Adam, international public opinion in support of Israel constitutes an achievement in the current struggle, as does the fact that “a great deal of Hizbullah infrastructure on every layer has been damaged.”
Regarding the recent operations which cost the lives of four soldiers Thursday, Adam said, “The circumstances of the confrontation were that our forces entered to locate and destroy rocket launch sites. In doing so, troops met Hizbullah operatives and a face-to-face battle erupted. Troops remained in the area to maintain control in the territory.” Adam also addressed the fatal helicopter crash Thursday: “This is all tied up in the risk of the operations here.”
“We have started sending ground forces to reach the terror gangs. Even we’re not talking about such a large number of terrorists, the amount of damage one operative sitting on a terrace firing Katyushas is enough to require that he be reached,” Adam explained. He commented on the military achievements thus far on the northern front: “A great deal of Hizbullah infrastructure has been damaged, and public opinion in the world understands that we’re dealing with a force that is ruining Lebanon, not protecting Lebanon. He noted that the IDF has made tactical accomplishment. “Everything needs to be improved in conjunction, from macrotactics to microtactics, for there to be tactical achievements. We go in and kill terrorists, and take control of lands that are known terrorist strongholds,” he said.
'We'll reach Nasrallah in the end'
Despite Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nassrallah’s speech broadcast Thursday night following Israel’s attempt to assassinate him in a large-scale airstrike on what was thought to be his bunker, the general said he believed “we will get to him in the end.”
“We need to reach him in other ways. Our aim is to eradicate terrorism, and disarm Hizbullah altogether. I don’t care if he (Nasrallah) goes on talking,” Adam said. He rejected Nasrallah’s gloating during his Thursday speech that Israel was surprised they had failed to kill him. “There is no surprise. Hizbullah has been preparing itself for this for 20 years. They said they didn’t have great amounts of rockets and long-range firing abilities, but they do, and we’re not surprised,” he added.
Adam noted that the army was calling up reserve soldiers as needed, “according to daily developments and the will to let fighters have a break, and so we weigh the issue of reserves conscription every few days. Right now it is not a large-scale comprehensive enlistment.”
