Speaking to cadets graduating from the IDF Ground Forces combat officers course, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns that Israel is “ready to return at any moment to intensive combat. The operational plans are ready. ”
Throughout his address, he promises total victory.
“All of our hostages, without exception, will return home,” he says. “Hamas won’t rule Gaza. Gaza will be demilitarized, and its fighting force will be dismantled.”
Netanyahu comes to the stage amid cheers and boos, and when he holds up a photo of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, some in the crowd yell out in protest. Netanyahu says the image “says it all… So that we will always remember, what we are fighting for, and who we are fighting against.”
He stresses that the Bibas family was murdered in cold blood in the early days of the war. “They strangled the tender boys with their bare hands,” he says. “We must defeat those monsters, and we will defeat them.”
“Victory, victory and only victory,” says Netanyahu. The victory “can be achieved in negotiations,” he says. “It can be achieved in another way.”
He says that the combination of diplomatic and military pressure on Hamas is what is enabling the return of hostages. Referring to recent reinforcements sent to Gaza, Netanyahu says that the redeployment “alongside President Trump’s firm statement brought about the release of the hostages in recent weeks.”
Netanyahu thanks Trump for his commitment to send crucial weapons to Israel. “The new defensive and offensive weapons will help us greatly in achieving total victory.”
Trump sees “eye-to-eye” with Israel on Gaza, he adds.
“We support President Trump’s groundbreaking plan to enable the freedom to leave for Gazans and the creation of a different Gaza,” says Netanyahu of the president’s proposal to relocate the entire Gaza population and have the US take over and rebuild the war-torn Strip.
In the West Bank, Netanyahu says, IDF troops will stay in cities as long as it takes. The tank platoon that Israel introduced into the West Bank means that Israel is fighting terrorism “with all means and in all places,” he says.
In Lebanon, the premier continues, the IDF is holding key positions “until the Lebanese army and Lebanese government fulfill all of their commitments according to the agreement.”
Troops will stay on the Syrian Hermon and the buffer zone in the Golan Heights for “an unlimited period of time… We will not allow [Hayat Tahrir al-Shams] forces or the new Syrian army to move into territory south of Damascus,” he insists.
“We demand full demilitarization of southern Syria from troops of the new Syrian regime in the Quneitra, Daraa and Suweyda provinces,” Netanyahu says, adding that Israel will not accept any threats to Druze in southern Syria.
On Iran, he says that Israel will not accept a nuclear weapon in the hands of the regime.
He also thanks the outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi for leading the IDF in the ongoing war, as the crowd cheers.