100 Days of Operation Iron Swords: IDF sums up its operations on the Gaza front

On Day 100 of Operation Iron Swords, the goal of which is to destroy the Hamas terror organization and return Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip, Israel Defense Forces published statistics summing up its operations so far.

The war began on Saturday, Oct. 7, when several thousand terrorists and civilians from the Gaza Strip invaded Israel, murdering an estimated 1,200 people and kidnapping some 240, 136 of whom remain in captivity.

After several days of battle to eliminate all the terrorists who infiltrated Israel and to close the gaps in the border, Israel began a 20-day bombing campaign to prepare for the large-scale ground invasion, which began on Oct. 27.

To deal with the enormous operational needs, including securing the northern border and the West Bank, as well as the ground invasion into Gaza, the IDF recruited around 295,000 reserve soldiers, with 45,000 of them returning to duty despite having been exempted from reserve service.

Since the beginning of the war, Israeli forces have killed roughly 9,000 terrorists in the Gaza Strip, the IDF reported.

Many of these were eliminated in precision airstrikes, including over 50 company-level commanders of the Hamas organization.

In addition, the IDF succeeded in eliminating 19 battalion-level commanders, as well as two commanders of Hamas’ regional brigades. Ahmad Ghandur commanded the Northern Gaza Brigade, while Iman Nawfal headed the Central Camps Brigade.

Both brigade commanders were senior officials in the terror group and were arch-terrorists who personally directed numerous terror attacks during their decades of activity.

Through close cooperation between the ground troops, Air Force and the artillery, some 30,000 targets have been attacked in the Gaza Strip so far.

The IDF reported that around 9,000 rockets and other projectiles reached Israeli territory after being fired from Gaza. In earlier statements, the army said that around 12-14% of rocket launches fell short and exploded inside the Gaza Strip, making the number of overall launches significantly higher.

Since the beginning of the war, 522 Israeli soldiers lost their lives in the line of duty. This includes 188 soldiers who were killed in the intense battles inside the Gaza Strip, with the rest being killed on Oct. 7 and the following days of battle.

In addition to the dead, 2,536 soldiers were wounded since Oct. 7, including 388 who suffered serious wounds and 672 who were moderately wounded. Of these, 41 soldiers are still hospitalized in serious condition, and another 267 in moderate condition.

The war has also seen some heroic action by army medical teams, who have flown around 415 evacuation missions by helicopter and around 1,700 vehicle-born missions, many of them under enemy fire.

The Israeli army also released extraordinary statistics regarding its humanitarian efforts to save Gaza’s civilian population from undue harm.

Israeli soldiers carried out around 79,000 personal phone calls to warn civilians to evacuate, plus around 15 million recorded phone messages, 13.7 million text messages, and 7.2 million evacuation notices that were airdropped into the Gaza Strip.

As the war progressed, Israel increasingly enabled the entry of humanitarian goods into the enclave and, to that effect, controlled and green-lit 7,653 trucks carrying food, water, medicine, material for shelters and more.