The Israeli Defense Forces are doing their level best to minimize civilian casualties as they continue to conduct operations in search of hostages taken during the brutal Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists, an IDF official told the Herald.

Speaking on background, the official said that it is not the goal of his nation’s military to target the Palestinian people also held hostage by Hamas terrorists, and that resulting calls by some in the U.S. to show the hostage takers some quarter demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation on the ground.

“We believe that we must begin every conversation with an understanding of the seventh of October,” he said. “Understanding the horror of that event, which brought the death of more than 1,200 people, that we still don’t know to recognize all of them, because of the brutality that was taking place.”

On Oct. 7, with little apparent warning, terrorists entered Israel from the Gaza Strip under the cover of a prolonged rocket barrage. The terrorists were able to kill indiscriminately for hours before the IDF was able to push them back into Gaza, but not before hundreds of Israelis were taken hostage and spirited into Hamas-controlled territory.

Since the war started, dozens of hostages have been released, many in exchange for imprisoned Palestinians. More than 130 remain in captivity, including infants and the elderly.

Israel responded to the attack by declaring war on the terrorist organization. The air and ground campaign which followed has claimed more than 15,000 Palestinian lives and left many thousands more injured, according to Hamas. Those figures have not been independently verified.

The Israeli government has maintained for decades that their efforts against Hamas in Gaza are frequently hindered by the organization’s apparent willingness to use civilians — including women and children — as shields for their military outposts and commanders.

Hamas has made clear for just as long that it aims to see Israel removed from the map and the Jewish people living there killed, the IDF official said.

“We’re seeing now, how rockets were being manufactured in schools, how underground infrastructure — other than being hundreds of miles long — how rockets manufacturing is also underground. We’re finding endless amounts of arms in mosques, and of course in hospitals,” he said. “This is their m.o.”

Humanitarian organizations have called for a cease-fire to allow medical aid and food into Gaza and civilians to flee. A brief lull in fighting last week arranged through diplomatic efforts has ended and fighting has resumed.

According to the official, the rise in domestic antisemitism that followed the attack is truly dismaying to residents of the longstanding U.S. ally. It was not, after all, his people who attacked the Palestinians. The official said it’s simultaneously saddening and infuriating for Jews, considering their long history of having to do so, to once again have to explain their right to exist and live.

“It is extremely frustrating and it is worrying to see where a double standard is taken. Specifically, where Israel and Jewish people are being used in that sense. I believe we’re seeing much of that,” he said.

The IDF official said the Israeli military will continue their campaign in Gaza until they see every hostage returned and Hamas rendered incapable of doing them — or the Palestinians living under their autocratic rule — any further harm.

What remains afterwards, he said, in an essentially state-less society where the average age is less than 20, and the only life most have known is living under the thumb of Hamas, will require a “looking at the challenge as a holistic challenge.”

“It’s not only to dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities, but also dismantling the whole Hamas ideology and control of the people,” he said. “That is something that needs to be rooted out in order to create a generation that will be looking for peace, that will be looking for better neighbors and collaboration. That is something that we, Israel, and we the world, need to focus on. Dismantling Hamas is part of a greater plan to create that future.”