Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Blue and White leader and prime-minister designate Benny Gantz, visited southern Israel separately on Wednesday to areas impacted by the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu, who visited the command headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces in southern Israel, threatened to resume targeted assassination operations against terrorists in Gaza.
“The terrorists know we can put a target on them, and we will put a target on anyone who tries to harm us. They know we can get to them in their hiding places with surgical precision,” Netanyahu said, according to the prime minister’s office.
PM Netanyahu: “We have just finished a security consultation here at IDF Southern Command with the Defense Minister, the Chief-of-Staff, GOC intelligence and the NSA Director. We agreed on the future steps. pic.twitter.com/iOX2W5wHBi
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 13, 2019
Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who took office on Tuesday, also released a similar statement. “Every terrorist and terror initiator know they have on their back a timer for the end of their life,” he said.
Meanwhile, during his visit to the south, Gantz backed the IDF’s campaign and called for a return to deterrence.
“There is consensus regarding the operational needs, and I totally back the actions of the State of Israel. … The goal is to reach a return to deterrence—the end of this battle needs to be very strong deterrence,” he said.
“When we need to fight, we’ll fight, and when we need to get to good neighbor relations, well do that as well. But don’t be mistaken—on the other side are terrorists, not Mother Theresa. They are shooting at areas where civilians are living on purpose.”
Gantz is working to form a governing coalition. However, he dismissed suggestions of a unity government as a result of the violence, saying “unity needs to be at the service of more than one specific event, as serious as it is.”
More than 350 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza—namely, by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and later Hamas—since early Tuesday morning, Israeli time.