“When they test us, they pay immediately. And if they continue testing us, they will pay dearly,” Netanyahu said of Israel’s retaliatory strikes against the Palestinian terror organizations.
By: Max Gelber, United with Israel
Speaking on Wednesday at the Nachalat Yitzhak cemetery in Tel Aviv during a memorial ceremony for the victims of the Altalena, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “Since yesterday the IDF has strongly retaliated against the firing from the Gaza Strip and has hit dozens of terrorist targets in the severest blow we have landed on them in years.”
Netanyahu was referring to the Israeli Air Force’s (IAF) retaliatory attacks against the Palestinian Gaza-based terror organizations, which fired over 100 projectiles at Israeli civilian targets over the course of 22 hours, the worst bombardment Israel has experienced since Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014.
Responding to these attacks, IAF fighter jets and attack helicopters overnight Tuesday struck some 25 military targets belonging to Hamas.
The targets included storage structures of drones used for terror purposes, a rocket manufacturing workshop, advanced naval weaponry, military compounds, training facilities, and a munitions manufacturing site.
There were no reports of any Palestinian casualties in the strikes.
These strikes were in addition to strikes the IAF carried out against military targets belonging to Hamas during the day. A total of 65 terror targets were hit in 24 hours.
Netanyahu called the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror organizations “inspired by Iran,” and the IDF said that the majority of the rockets they fired at Israel were manufactured by the Islamic Republic.
“I will not detail our plans because I do not want the enemy to know what to expect”, Netanyahu said, but he clarified one fundamental point: “When they test us, they pay immediately. And if they continue testing us, they will pay dearly.”
He saluted the fighters of the IDF and the security forces and commended the residents of Israel’s south for their “resilience.”
Terrorists Brought to Their Knees
Palestinian terror organizations ceased their fire on Israeli communities after their last barrage early Wednesday morning, and an Israeli defense official said that Jewish state’s massive strikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad caused the terror groups to cease their fire.
“The IDF launched a significant strike overnight in Gaza and we have acted responsibly, and since the morning the fire has stopped. Israel has delivered a message that if the fire resumes, the attacks on Hamas and the other groups will intensify,” a senior source in the Israeli defense establishment is quoted as saying by the Jerusalem Post.
“In recent months, Israel has acted with force and determination against any attempt to violate its sovereignty and/or harm the security of the residents of the south and it will continue to act with force against any attempt to violate the peace,” the official said.
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