Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday, said that last week’s strike on Hamas’ terrorist leadership in Qatar ‘didn’t fail,’ warning that ‘Israel will attack again’ if necessary.
Prime Minister Netanyahu made those remarks at a joint press conference with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem. He noted that every nation has the right ‘to defend itself beyond its borders.’
Israel has the right to strike back at Hamas terrorists and planners of the October 7 massacre “wherever they are,” Prime Minister Netanyahu added.
The Israeli leader took sole responsibility for the Qatar strike, which sought to take out the terrorist group’s leadership abroad. “We did it on our own. Period,” he told reporters.
Israel’s Ynetnews reported:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visiting Israel, gave a joint statement Monday afternoon at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem after their meeting. At the same time, the Washington Post reported that Rubio is expected to visit Qatar on Tuesday, one week after the Israeli strike in Doha. (…)Asked by Ynet if Israel had updated Washington before the Doha strike, Netanyahu replied: “The decision to strike the terrorist leadership there was entirely independent. It was made by me, managed by us, and we take full responsibility — because terrorists cannot be given safe haven. We did this ourselves.” He added: “There is hypocrisy and cynicism in condemning Israel. The UN approved that states should not host terrorists, and of course the U.S. acted courageously against al-Qaida sanctuaries in Afghanistan and against bin Laden in Pakistan.”
While Israel reportedly took out at least five Hamas terrorists, the jihadist group’s top leadership appears to have survived the Doha strike. “Israel has informed the U.S. that the chances of success of its strikes Tuesday on a Hamas residence in Doha, Qatar, have “decreased significantly,” two Israeli sources familiar with the matter [say], ABC News reported last week.
The Arab Gulf kingdom of Qatar harbours most of the senior Hamas leaders living outside Gaza. On October 7, 2023, these Hamas leaders were seen celebrating the massacre at their Doha command center.
Prime Minister Netanyahu also thanked President Donald Trump and his administration for their support in Israel’s war against Hamas and the Iran-led terrorist axis. “We appreciate all the help that President Trump and you have given us on this sacred task. We remember Hamas and we know that we must defeat them and ensure that they no longer are able to turn Gaza into a threat to Israel. They no longer should be there,” Netanyahu said in his opening remark.
“The President has shown consistent leadership, moral clarity and bold actions that have strengthened the alliances between our nations as never before,” he added.
To prevent the IDF troops from carrying out the planned ground offensive in Gaza City, Hamas is moving hostages, who have been languishing in the terror tunnels since October 7, 2023, into buildings above ground, the Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Monday.
Amid mounting diplomatic pressure from European and Arab states, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is preparing for a large-scale offensive to capture the terrorist stronghold of Gaza City. Israeli troops “mass at Gaza’s western neighborhoods, finalizing preparations for a renewed ground maneuver” and were “tightening a ring around the city,” Ynetnews observed on Sunday.
The terrorist group is still believed to be holding around 20 living hostages, after nearly two years of fighting.
Hamas is also preventing the city’s residents from leaving for designated safe zones in the south. The terrorist group wants to maximize civilian casualties in an effort to force Israel into abandoning the military operation to free the remaining hostages and eliminate its terrorist fighting forces, Israeli broadcaster Kan warned.
The Jerusalem Post reported Hamas’ cynical tactics:
Hamas has begun moving some hostages above ground in the Gaza Strip in an attempt to hinder the IDF’s ground operations in Gaza City, Kan News reported Monday morning.Palestinian sources said that some hostages are being held in houses while others are in tents.Kan News also reported that Hamas is preparing a so-called “legitimacy ambush” in Gaza City. This strategy aims to exploit civilian casualties to increase international pressure on Israel to halt its offensive.According to the report, Hamas is working to keep residents in the northern Gaza Strip and block their evacuation southward. The group has used threats, media campaigns urging residents to remain in their homes, and violence against those trying to leave, including threats of execution.
With Hamas embedded in the civilian population, the IDF is taking out the high-rise and tall buildings in Gaza City, which serve as spying and observation points for Hamas. On Monday, Israel destroyed another Hamas-held building in the area.
“A short while ago, the IDF struck a high-rise building that was used by the Hamas terrorist organization in the area of Gaza City,” the military said in a press release on Monday. “Hamas terrorists planted intelligence gathering equipment and positioned observation posts to monitor the location of IDF troops in the area, and to advance terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and IDF troops.”
While Hamas’ strategy is to put Gazans in harm’s way, Israel took measures “to mitigate harm to civilians as much as possible, including advanced warnings to the population, the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the IDF confirmed. Hamas terrorists “systematically violate international law, brutally exploiting civilian infrastructure and the Gazan population as human shields for terrorist activities,” the statement added.
In a 6-month-long operation, the Israeli armed forces have succeeded in taking out 21 Gaza-based commanders and hundreds of terrorists belonging to the Iran-sponsored Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group. The list, made public on Monday, contains the names of several senior commanders, bomb makers, and terror planners.
The IDF revealed the details in a statement:
Over the past six months, hundreds of terrorists from the terrorist organization have been eliminated as part of IDF operations in the Gaza Strip.The IDF and the ISA [Israeli Security Service, also known as Shin Bet], led by the Southern Command and in cooperation with the Intelligence Directorate and the Israeli Air Force, continue to strike terrorists and military infrastructure of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.Following intelligence analysis, it can now be revealed that 21 key terrorists from the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization were eliminated by the IDF and the ISA.
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