Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, reaffirmed his country’s strategy to battle Palestinian terrorism on Sunday, warning that anyone who kills Israelis “will end up in one of two places: Prison or the grave.
As Israeli forces withdrew from Jenin after a two-day counterterrorism raid, Chief Sgt. David Yehuda Yitzchak, 23, a non-commissioned officer from the Egoz commando unit, was killed.
Staff Sgt. Shilo Yosef Amir, 22, a member of the Givati Brigade, was shot dead two days later by a Palestinian terrorist trying to enter the town of Kedumim.”From the depth of their hearts, the people of Israel embrace the families, and we all salute the security forces that fight terrorism around the clock,” said Netanyahu.
He said that there were three ways in which the government’s policy was being carried out. We always settle our differences with the actual attackers first.
Second, we target terrorist infrastructure and those who direct terrorist attacks.
Thirdly, we start with the surprise and take advantage of it. As we did in “Operation Shield and Arrow” against Islamic Jihad in Gaza and as we did in the operation against terrorists in Jenin, we chose the right moment to take action.
We are altering the equation; therefore, we’ll keep going, said Netanyahu. Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), stated earlier on Sunday that the operation in Jenin last week did not put an end to Israel’s war against terrorism.
According to him, the current state of affairs with regard to security “requires us to concentrate on the goal and the unity that underpins it so that we will be prepared for any challenge in any field.
“We do not have the luxury given the prevailing reality to not show up for every challenge and task,” Halevi said, adding that “we have seen both in ‘Operation Shield and Arrow’ [against Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza in May] and in the most recent operation in Jenin that the arenas influence each other, and therefore wisdom is required in the use of force.
Halevi continued, “The struggle against terrorism does not end with one operation; it demands tenacity and persistence in addition to the resiliency of the state and its people.
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