Southern Command Chief Says IDF Fights ‘Darkness and Evil,’ Pledges Honesty After Failures

BEERSHEBA (VINnews) — Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor, commander of the Israel Defense Forces Southern Command, told senior officers and western Negev municipal leaders Tuesday that Israel is waging a just war against Hamas and must answer criticism with facts, not slogans.

The remarks came at a ceremony marking the start of the Hebrew year. Division and brigade commanders also attended.

Asor recalled the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault on Simchat Torah, calling the attack a rupture whose scale remains immense nearly three years later. War, he said, demands conviction that the cause is just.

“We carry a torch of light and good, and we are fighting a great war against darkness and evil,” Asor said.

He described Hamas as a product of Gaza, not an outside force, arguing the group grew inside a population that largely supports or identifies with it. Some Gazans reject Hamas, he said, but they lack the power to change the reality on the ground.

Asor said IDF forces continue to distinguish combatants from civilians and try to limit harm to people not taking part in hostilities. He acknowledged that civilian casualties still occur and that efforts to spare noncombatants can constrain strikes on Hamas operatives.

In the face of what he called false claims, the military will present facts, he said. Difficult questions will get honest answers. When failures emerge, the IDF will investigate, learn and correct course.

That standard, Asor said, is required by belief in the justice of Israel’s path. It is not a claim of perfection, he added, but a duty that applies to every order and every decision.

Forces under Southern Command are operating along the Yellow Line — the demarcation inside Gaza that separates areas still held by Israeli troops from the rest of the Strip under current arrangements — to push threats farther from Israeli communities, Asor said. He said troops have hit Hamas tunnels, weapons and production sites and will keep targeting any capability that endangers Israeli civilians.

Asor took command of the Southern Command in March 2025, succeeding Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman.