Israel will not allow Iran and its proxies to rebuild their strength, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday, warning Tehran that any attack on the Jewish state would provoke a response it has “yet to see.”
Netanyahu made the remarks during a press conference on the return of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last remaining hostage in Gaza, whose remains were recovered by the military on Monday.
Following the return of all 251 captives taken during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, Netanyahu told reporters that the Israel Defense Forces is “focusing on completing the two remaining missions... [of] disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza of weapons and tunnels.”
“I hear even now the statements that we will allow the reconstruction of Gaza before demilitarization. That will not happen. I hear that we will bring Turkish soldiers and Qatari soldiers into Gaza. That will also not happen. I hear that I will allow the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza. That has not happened, and it will not happen,” the premier vowed.
Netanyahu said the IDF would maintain security control “over the entire area,” from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including Gaza.
Since the start of the War of Redemption, sparked by the Oct. 7 attacks nearly 28 months ago, Netanyahu said, “We have achieved great accomplishments together. We have struck Iran and its terror proxies hard.”
Israel will not allow the Iran-led terrorist axis, including Hamas, to rebuild, the premier declared, warning that “if Iran makes the grave mistake of attacking Israel, we will respond with a force that Iran has yet to see.”
“Yesterday, brothers and sisters, we closed a circle together,” Netanyahu said, referring to Gvili’s return. “From here, we continue with strength, determination, and faith, working to ensure—with God’s help—the future and security of the State of Israel for generations.”
Speaking just hours after Gvili’s body was recovered Monday, Netanyahu told Knesset lawmakers that the next phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan would focus on disarming Hamas and demilitarizing the Strip, rather than on reconstruction.
The Jewish state is “at the threshold of the next phase: Disarming Hamas and demilitarizing the Gaza Strip,” he told parliament, declaring: “The sooner we do so, the sooner we will complete the war’s objectives.”
According to the prime minister, demilitarization “will happen—as our friend Trump said—the easy way or the hard way, but it will happen.”
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has rejected demands that his group lay down arms, stating on Dec. 7 that “protecting the resistance project and its weapons is the right of our people to defend themselves.
“The resistance and its weapons are the ummah’s [Islamic nation] honor and pride,” the terrorist leader told an anti-Israel summit in Istanbul, adding, “A thousand statements are not worth a single projectile of iron.”
