JERUSALEM (AP): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the country’s war cabinet in Tel Aviv on Sunday during which Netanyahu committed to continuing Israel’s military action against Hamas in Gaza.
“Victory will only be achieved if we complete our goal and when we will bring back the security to the people of the north and south as one,” he told cabinet members.
He also threatened the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group, saying it should “learn what Hamas already learned in the previous months.”
“No terrorist is immune, and we are determined to defend our citizens and to return the people of the north to their homes safely,” he said.
Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah traded fire Saturday in one of the heaviest days of cross-border fighting in recent weeks, a day after the militia’s leader urged retaliation for the targeted killing, presumably by Israel, of a top Hamas leader in Lebanon’s capital.
Hezbollah said it launched 62 rockets toward an Israeli air surveillance base on Mount Meron and scored direct hits in its “initial response” to Saleh al-Arouri’s killing. It said rockets also struck two army posts near the border.
The Israeli military said about 40 rockets were fired toward Meron and that a base was targeted – the Israeli army said the rockets caused no casualties in Israel.
The war in Gaza was triggered by a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages.
On Saturday, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 122 Palestinians had been killed over the past 24 hours, bringing the total since the start of the war to 22,722. The count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians. The ministry has said two-thirds of those killed have been women or children.
The overall number of wounded rose to 58,166, the ministry said.
