Brig.-Gen. Tzvika Fogel said Wednesday that the report in Maariv daily regarding a simulation of an IDF incursion into Gaza caused unnecessary alarm. According to Maariv, the IDF simulated a Gaza incursion and found that more than 70 IDF soldiers would be killed in such an operation.

Fogel said that the scenario was only one of the possibilities the IDF examined and not the only one. "It was part of the simulations," he said. "That is precisely the idea: to examine different modes of action in order to find the best one, so that less soldiers are hurt."

Fogel was head of the IDF's Southern Command staff.