Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the Jewish state’s resilience following two years of war on seven fronts, speaking on Thursday during a signing of a development agreement in the country’s south.
“We are building and fighting, we are building and winning—we are winning in Kiryat Gat and in seven arenas around us,” Netanyahu declared in remarks during the ceremony in the southern city.
The housing development agreement for Kiryat Gat includes 21,000 new homes, along with over 700,000 square meters of commercial and employment space, totaling a $1.84 billion investment.
“We are winning—a fact that amazed the world,” continued the premier. “After all, do you remember what they said about us? One, named Nasrallah, said, ‘They are spiderwebs,’ and another, named Sinwar, said, ‘They are dust.’ They are dust; they are no longer here.”
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was eliminated in a Sept. 27, 2024, airstrike in Beirut, while Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar was slain in the Strip by Israel Defense Forces on Oct. 16, 2024.
“Not only them, but other enemies as well,” said Netanyahu. “Where does this come from? Because of the spirit, everything is because of the spirit. The spirit of the eternity of Israel, of mutual responsibility.”
The premier noted that Kiryat Gat, a city of some 60,000 people located around 20 miles north-east of Gaza, took in evacuees from Kibbutz Nir Oz who survived the Hamas massacre in their community on Oct. 7, 2023.
The city is also home to the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Center, which monitors the ceasefire between Jerusalem and Hamas terrorists in Gaza brokered by the Trump administration earlier this month.
The Jewish state is “happy to host them,” the prime minister stated. “We, of course, make decisions on every security matter. And we are doing everything that is necessary, including now. But we cooperate.”
Netanyahu denounced calls for Jerusalem to surrender to the terrorist organization, declaring in his remarks, “It’s possible to defeat Hamas, and that is what we are working on, but we returned all our living hostages, and now we will also return all our deceased captives.”
A U.S.-brokered truce agreement earlier this month halted 24 months of fighting with Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip while bringing home 20 living Israeli hostages and the remains of another 15 murdered captives.
The second phase of the Trump administration’s peace plan for Gaza calls for the demilitarization of Hamas and other terror organizations while fully eliminating their ability to threaten the Jewish state.
Hamas still holds the remains of 13 slain hostages, and Jerusalem and Washington have accused it of slow-walking their return to delay its disarmament.
