Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday told a special session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee that was held in his office in the Kirya, Tel Aviv, “We are in a multi-arena war in which were attacked on seven fronts; we have already operated in six of them. Anyone who acts against us is a target.”
“The State of Israel will know what to do, the security system is being readied,” Gallant said, adding, “The reality in which we are attacked and are restrained is correct according to our judgment, and the results can be seen in Gaza, and those who see and understand them in particular are Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah.”
“I want to tell you that this is a long and hard war,” Gallant continued. “It has its costs, heavy costs, but its justification is the highest that can be. We were brutally and barbarically attacked in an effort to discourage us from living here. We must make it clear that whoever makes a move of this kind on us will be punished. Whether it takes us months or years, this matter must be concluded.”
Gallant stressed, “Without meeting the goals of the war, we are in a situation where the problem will not be who lives around Gaza or who lives in the north, the problem will be that people will not want to live in a place where we don’t know how to protect them.”
“The Foreign and Security Committee represents the entire public, I act on behalf of the entire public, that’s how the considerations are determined,” Gallant told the committee members. “Hundreds of thousands of people are serving in the IDF at the moment, both regular and reserve, who come from all levels of Israeli society, Jews and non-Jews of all shades and from all directions, and, unfortunately, the costs are also shared this way.”
“We need determination, endurance and strength, and a national adherence to our goals. It is a battle in which the one who survives is the one who is stronger on the national level – in values and unity. This is a battle of national determination and I tell you that we will defeat Hamas. They had no idea where they were taking themselves. We will defeat and beat them, and the entire region will also get the message,” the DM said.
Chairman of the Foreign and Defense Committee MK Yuli Edelstein responded: “As the fighting progresses, we are getting closer and closer to the transition between the second and third stages of combat. As the defense minister and I said in the very beginning – this will be a long campaign and we must be prepared for it, in all its aspects.”
