Israel demands the full demilitarization of southern Syria and will not tolerate “any threat” to the Druze population in the area, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday evening.
The Israel Defense Forces “will remain in the Hermon sector and the buffer zone [in the Syrian Golan Heights] indefinitely to protect our communities and thwart any threat,” Netanyahu told incoming officers at an IDF graduation ceremony.
“You better listen,” he warned. “We will not allow forces of the [Sunni jihadist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham] HTS or the new Syrian army to enter the territory south of Damascus.”
He went on to state that Israel will continue to hold commanding territory inside Lebanon that protects Israeli communities until the Lebanese army and government “fulfill all their obligations” as outlined in the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire.
Netanyahu further reiterated his commitment to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, noting that this goal serves Israel’s national security interests but global security as well.
“We have crushed large parts of Iran’s axis of evil via lethal strikes—strikes that have sparked astonishment, and I can even say admiration, across the world,” the premier added.
On the war in Gaza, Netanyahu said that the government remains committed to the goals of the war: “The return of all our hostages—both the living and the fallen—home; the dismantling of Hamas’s military and governmental capabilities in Gaza; the prevention of any future threat from Gaza against Israel; and the safe return of our dear citizens from the south and the north to their homes.”
He went on to say that, “In every moment we are ready to return to intensive combat. The operational plans are ready.”
Addressing the incoming officers, Netanyahu displayed a photograph of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, who were murdered in captivity after being kidnapped into the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023.
“This picture says it all; I ask that you engrave it in your hearts so that we always remember what we are fighting for and who we are fighting against. We are fighting to secure our existence against human monsters who have risen to destroy us,” the prime minister said.
“Already in the first days of the war, they murdered Shiri and her children in cold blood, strangling the young children with their own hands. And if they could, they would kill us all with the same cruelty, down to the last one of us,” Netanyahu continued.
“This is what we are fighting against, and them, these monsters—we must and can defeat them, and we will defeat them. This is our mission, and this is your mission! As defenders of the homeland, you are all filled with a sense of duty, the wielders of sword and shield,” he said.
The premier also addressed Judea and Samaria, saying that “our forces are advancing deep into the refugee camps with momentum. They are destroying terrorist infrastructure, eliminating terrorists, and will remain there as long as necessary.”
