IDF chief says Israel ‘knows how to reach anywhere in the Middle East’

Visiting the Israeli Air Force’s fleet of F-35I fighter jets, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi warns that Israel “knows how to reach anywhere in the Middle East,” Report informs, citing The Times of Israel.

“We are already a month into the war, hitting Hamas very, very hard, hitting the leadership of Hamas, hitting the commanders, hitting the terrorists, destroying Hamas’s infrastructure in Gaza, and we are also constantly ready for other areas,” says Halevi to soldiers at the Nevatim airbase. “This [air] base knows how to reach anywhere in the Middle East.”

Halevi tells the soldiers that he recently saw an F-35I jet providing air support to troops some 200 meters (some 656 feet) away in the Gaza Strip.

“We never did anything like this. With very heavy munitions, a very good connection between what the [ground] force needs and what the plane knows to give,” he says. “This connection of air and land together, we always knew it was strong, we see now that it is much stronger than we knew.”