Former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot revealed on Sunday that the Israel Defense Forces targeted and neutralized hundreds of terrorist operatives belonging to ISIS in 2015.
"ISIS knows best how much the IDF operated in the Middle East – they paid the price of hundreds of casualties and injured. In 2015, there was an event in a specific location where we were asked to carry out an attack. We conducted a very extensive attack and hit many ISIS operatives," said Eisenkot.
"The campaign against ISIS was intensive and far beyond that of any other country," the former IDF chief added.
Eisenkot, who now serves as a Knesset member, said some of the IDF's military strategy and covert operations against ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) have been successful.
"With results that in some places surpassed all imagination regarding the type of operations and attacks carried out. Some of the actions went under the radar."
Jurgen Todenhofer, a German journalist who spoke with ISIS operatives during his captivity, told Britain's Jewish News that Israel was the only Middle Eastern nation that has succeeded in deterring the spread of the feared Islamist terror group across the region.
Despite their image of fearless fundamentalists, ISIS terrorists reportedly feared direct confrontations with the formidable Israel Defense Forces. Instead, ISIS focused on striking U.S. and pro-Western forces in Syria, Iraq, and beyond.
However, ISIS still targeted Jewish and Israeli targets. In March 2022, an Arab Israeli citizen who identified with ISIS, carried out a lethal terror attack in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
This article originally appeared on All Israel News and is reposted with permission.