Netanyahu urged today to “close ranks” against attempts to halt the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated this Thursday, five months after the start of the war in Gaza, the existential nature he attributes to the military offensive. He stated that the conflict will not end without the invasion of Rafah, the southernmost area of the enclave.
The Prime Minister declared during a speech at the graduation ceremony of hundreds of cadets, “The army will continue to act against all Hamas battalions throughout the Strip, and that includes Rafah, the last bastion of Hamas. Anyone telling us not to act in Rafah is telling us to lose the war, and that will not happen.”
Netanyahu added, “We are fighting these monsters to ensure our existence while at the same time protecting the most sacred values of the free world and human society as a whole,” referring to Hamas militants.
Meanwhile, at the same event, the Chief of the Israeli Army General Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, called for “recruits from all corners of Israeli society” to join their forces, explicitly alluding to the growing ultra-Orthodox sector.
“Not only because the Israel Defense Forces need to cover the missing forces and expand their ranks, but mainly to strengthen social cohesion,” said Halevi.
Due to a temporary agreement with the Ministry of Defense, currently under appeal in the Israeli Supreme Court, about 66,000 ultra-Orthodox men registered as yeshiva or kollel students—dedicated to full-time study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature—are exempt from military service.
Despite international pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza coinciding with the sacred month of Ramadan starting next week, Netanyahu urged today to “close ranks” against attempts to halt the war.
“In the future, we will openly and fully extract all the lessons from October 7th, but today we have a clear and immediate goal before our eyes: to achieve complete victory in the war,” he added.
