Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an assessment of the situation in the Southern Command with Minister of Defense Benny Gantz, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, the head of the National Security Council Meir Ben-Shabbat, the Commander of the Southern Command Eliezer Toledano, and other senior officials.
The Prime Minister announced at the end of the assessment session:
“I have just finished a situation assessment in the Southern Command with the Minister of Defense, the Chief of Staff, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Command.
We are in the midst of a campaign. Since yesterday, the IDF has attacked hundreds of targets on Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. We eliminated commanders, we hit a lot of their quality targets.
The conclusion of the meeting is to further increase both the intensity and the rate of attacks. Hamas will receive blows it did not expect.
I know that this also involves patience and a certain sacrifice on your part, the citizens of Israel. Unfortunately, two of our civilians have been killed. I ask all of you to obey the instructions, to strictly observe the guidelines of the Home Front Command, which saves lives.
We have some more distance to go, we will do it together responsibly, with full backing for the attacks being carried out by the IDF.
I also want to say a word about the Arabs of Israel.
There was a wild riot here yesterday that we cannot tolerate by brainwashed young people. Our directive is to do everything to maintain law and order. I expect from all our public leaders, and first and foremost from the leaders of the Arab public, to stand up, condemn this riot, and do everything to restore calm.
We gave instructions to reinforce the police forces with additional Border Police battalions. We will reinforce them as much as would be needed to maintain law and order in the State of Israel, and here, too, we need your cooperation, all the citizens of Israel.”