Thursday, August 1, 2024 - Israel Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Wednesday evening that “challenging days are ahead” for Israel as it braces for attacks from Iran and its regional proxies following the assassinations of Hezbollah’s top military commander in Beirut and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Speaking from Israel's military headquarters in Tel Aviv at
the end of a three-hour-long security cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Israel
was facing threats from across the region following the killing of Faud Shukr,
whom he called “Hezbollah’s chief of staff,” in Beirut on Tuesday night.
“We are ready for every
scenario,” he promised, “and will stand united and determined against every
threat.” He added: “Israel will exact a very heavy price for any aggression
against us.”
Israel was on high alert Tuesday evening as it prepared to
face retaliation for the attacks. The killings and expectations of a response
have fueled further concern that the conflict in Gaza was turning into a wider
Middle East war.
The Israeli strike in Beirut was carried out in retaliation
for a deadly Hezbollah rocket attack on a Golan Heights Druze town Saturday
that killed 12 children in a soccer field. Israel has said Shukr was
responsible for the attack.
Iran’s official Fars News Agency reported Wednesday night
July 31, that Iranian military adviser Milad Bedi had also been killed in the
Beirut strike that killed Shukr. Bedi was in the building where Israel targeted
Shukr and his body was identified on Wednesday, the report said.
“The murder of innocent
children has been added to the unending suffering of the residents in the
north, our dear ones who have been exiled from their homes, and whose
communities have suffered serious attacks — and for this we will not be
silent.”
“Everyone who takes aim at
our children, everyone who murders our citizens, everyone who9 harms our
country — their blood is on their own head,” Netanyahu added.
In his Wednesday address, Netanyahu asserted that he has
been under pressure, domestically and abroad, to end the war in Gaza.
I did not give in to those
voices then, and I don’t give in to them now,” he said.
Had he listened to them, the PM argued, Israel would not
have taken out Hamas leaders and fighters, destroyed infrastructure, taken the
Gaza-Egypt border area, or “created the conditions that bring us closer to
terms that will not only bring our hostages back, but also allow us to achieve
all of our objectives for the war.
“All of the achievements in
recent months were attained because we did not give in,” Netanyahu said, “and
because we made brave decisions in the face of great pressure at home and
abroad. And I tell you it was not easy.
“Together we will fight, and
with God’s help, together we will win,” he concluded.
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