Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad said today that Israel will “find” and “exterminate“the Palestinian leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar.

“We will find Sinwar and exterminate him,” Gallad said during a press conference in Tel-Aviv.

“This Shabbat (Saturday) we fought hard battles inside the Gaza Strip. We have completed the encirclement (of Gaza City) and our forces are operating from the south and the north,” he said.

“And to do that we entered residential areas,” he announced.

The Israeli army began its ground operation in Palestinian territory on Friday, October 27.

At least 29 Israeli soldiers have been killed since then, according to the military.

Since October 7, according to the Israeli authorities, at least 1,400 people have lost their lives on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed on the same day of the unprecedented scale of the Hamas attack.

In retaliation, Israel declared war to “exterminate” Hamas, relentlessly pounding the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Palestinian Islamist movement.

They have been killed by these blows nearly 9,500 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas government.

The Israeli military accused Hamas on October 27 of “waging war from hospitals” in the Gaza Strip, which the Islamist movement strongly denied.