IDF marks day 1,000 of the War of Redemption

The conference opened with a moment of silence for the 964 soldiers killed since the morning of Oct. 7. The Israel Defense Forces on Monday held a conference marking 1,000 days of fighting in the War of Redemption, launched in response to Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. As part of the summit, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir held an intelligence, operational and strategic assessment with the IDF's General Staff Forum, which includes about 30 of the military's most senior commanders. The meeting opened with a moment of silence for the 964 soldiers killed since the morning of Oct. 7. As part of the ceremony, a recording was played of the late Col. Asaf Hamami declaring war some 30 minutes after the invasion got underway. “We are at war, everything is fine, war,” Hamami says in the audio clip, in what is believed to be the first such declaration made that day. The memorial ceremony was followed by a panel discussion with field commanders discussing the 1,000 days of fighting. "We are currently at a significant strategic crossroads in this campaign," Zamir said in his remarks at the event. "One thousand days and one thousand nights we have been fighting in one of the longest, most complex and most demanding campaigns we have ever known." The chief of staff said the IDF's success on seven fronts was the result of "combat leadership, decision-making, command and the courage of our troops on the front lines, under fire and at the most difficult decision points." He added, "There is operational and command experience here unlike anything the IDF has seen since its establishment." Referring to the Hamas massacre, Zamir said: "The Oct. 7 attack was an assault on the very existence of the Jewish people. We remember the fallen, their heroism and their families, alongside those wounded in body and spirit." "The wheat grows again," Zamir concluded his speech, quoting an iconic Israeli song written after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. "Just as it has throughout Jewish history, it will continue to grow thanks to the commanders and soldiers of the IDF. The responsibility now rests with us." Some 6,000 terrorists from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah, as well as unaffiliated Gazan civilians, infiltrated the Jewish state's southern border on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people, wounding thousands and kidnapping 251. Israeli ground forces entered Gaza on Oct. 27, following a weeks-long air campaign in response to the Oct. 7 attacks. Jerusalem's stated goals for the war were to destroy Hamas as a military and governing force in Gaza, ensure that it can not threaten Israel again and return all hostages. The war quickly expanded beyond Gaza, with Jerusalem also fighting Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, battling terrorist groups in Judea and Samaria, conducting military operations in Syria, confronting Houthi attacks from Yemen, carrying out strikes inside Iranian territory and responding to attacks from Iraq.