Katz orders the army to hunt about 2,000 people still alive from 7 October

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said on Monday that the army has been ordered to pursue and kill the people still alive who took part in the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023. He put their number at about 2,000. He said about 6,000 attackers crossed into Israel that day and that 4,000 have since been killed. The order, he said, was issued with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We ordered the military to pursue and kill them all, from the most senior to the most junior," Katz said.

Netanyahu used a state memorial at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem the same day to say Israel would keep pursuing those who carried out the attack and those who held Israeli hostages. He also said Hamas would not be allowed to keep control of Gaza. Tuesday is the eve of the third anniversary. The attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel. Gaza's health authorities put the dead from Israel's campaign since then at more than 74,200.

What the arithmetic does and does not settle

Katz's figures are a headcount of participants, not a casualty list of the war. Six thousand crossed. Four thousand killed. Two thousand marked. He did not say how many of the remaining 2,000 are in Gaza, how many left, or how many are in Israeli custody under another status. A pursuit order aimed at people already in prison would be redundant. The operational reading is that Israel believes a large share of the 2,000 are still at large, most of them in Gaza.

The phrase "from the most senior to the most junior" widens the target beyond commanders. A junior participant in the 7 October crossing is, on this wording, marked the same way as a planner. That is a policy choice. It also collides with any ceasefire text that distinguishes fighters still holding hostages from people who crossed the fence and survived. Katz did not mention a distinction.

The anniversary timing

The statements landed as Israel marked three years since the assault, and a day before the date itself. UN secretary-general António Guterres, in a message posted on Tuesday, called for a permanent ceasefire and for aid at scale, and said last year's ceasefire had not yet produced security, assistance or a credible path to recovery. He asked the parties to move to the next phase of that plan. Katz's order and Guterres's appeal were published within a day of each other. They do not describe the same next step.

Local health officials in Gaza said Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed at least two people. The Israeli military told Reuters the strikes targeted militants. Two deaths in a day do not measure the order. They show that strikes were still being flown as the anniversary speeches were being given.

The number that would confirm the order

A pursuit order becomes visible when names are added to it or when a specific raid is tied to the 7 October list. Katz has published a round number, not a list. Netanyahu has published a commitment at a memorial, not a timetable. The 4,000 already killed is the part of the arithmetic that is in the past. The 2,000 is the part that will be argued over in Gaza, in any talks about the next phase of the ceasefire, and in courts that ask how a junior participant is identified. Until a name or a raid is attached to the figure, the order is a ministerial instruction with a headcount, issued on the eve of the third anniversary.