Katz, IDF chief mark 1,000 days since Oct. 7 with stark Iran warning

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir marked 1,000 days since October 7 at Thursday's General Staff situational assessment. "Today marks 1,000 days since the outbreak of the longest war in our history, a war that began with a grave failure and the worst tragedy in the history of the State of Israel."Iran continues to be the primary focus of our preparedness. We are currently in an interim period across all theaters of operation. All arenas remain active at varying levels of intensity, and each is undergoing defining developments."Defense Minister Katz: 'Our enemies understand that their attempt to destroy Israel has failed'Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel had “changed the face of the Middle East” after October 7."We emerged from the greatest catastrophe we have ever known into Israel's war against Hamas. We paid a heavy price and lost the best of our sons and daughters, but from that pain emerged a more united people and a stronger, more determined state," Katz said.“We eliminated Iran's leader Khamenei and most of the Iranian leadership, severely damaged its strategic capabilities, and the IDF must be prepared to carry out an independent Israeli strike on Iran whenever necessary in order to remove any threat,” he added.He added that Israel will "never return to a reality in which our enemies entrench themselves along our borders and threaten our communities.""We eliminated the entire Hamas leadership involved in the October 7 massacre, killed Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah's leadership, destroyed Assad's army in Syria, decapitated most of the Houthi leadership in Yemen, and dealt severe blows to every terrorist arm that sought to surround Israel with a ring of fire,” he added.“One thousand days after October 7, our enemies understand very well that their attempt to destroy the State of Israel has failed."