Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear, in a speech graduating military cadets yesterday, that Israel is “ready to return at any moment to intensive combat. The operational plans are ready.”
“All of our hostages, without exception, will return home,” he declared, reported the Times of Israel. “Hamas won’t rule Gaza. Gaza will be demilitarized, and its fighting force will be dismantled.” According to the ToI account, Netanyahu came to the stage amid cheers and boos, and when he held up a photo of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, some in the crowd yelled out in protest. Netanyahu claimed the image “says it all.… So that we will always remember, what we are fighting for, and who we are fighting against.”
Netanyahu did not limit himself to war in Gaza, either. In the West Bank, Netanyahu said, IDF troops will stay in cities as long as it takes. The tank platoon that Israel has introduced into the West Bank means that Israel is fighting terrorism “with all means and in all places,” he claimed.