Two hours after Gil-Ad Shaer, Eyal Yifrah and Naftali Fraenkel were buried, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the military operation would continue with the first aim being to apprehend the killers.
Netanyahu said in a short statement at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv before convening the security cabinet, that anyone harboring the illusion that they will achieve anything through terrorism will be disappointed.
“They will get the exact opposite results,” he said. “Hamas is responsible, Hamas is paying, and Hamas will continue to pay.”
Netanyahu laid out three goals of the continued military operation.
The first, he said, was to apprehend the killers and anyone who participated in their kidnapping and murders.
“We will not rest until we get to the very last of them, and it does not matter where they try to hide,” he said. “We will get to them, even if it takes time. This is our first goal, and it will be carried out.”
Secondly, he said, the IDF will hit Hamas operatives and its infrastructure in Judea and Samaria. “We have already arrested hundreds of Hamas activists, closed dozens of their institutions, and destroyed homes – and more is to come.”
The third goal, he said, is to act against Hamas in Gaza.
“Hamas continues to encourage the kidnappings of our citizens, and is directly responsible for the firing of rockets and mortars on our territory,” he said. Netanyahu noted that the IDF has acted aggressively against Hamas in the last few days, and added that there – too – the battle will be expanded “as much as is needed.”
