JERUSALEM, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday during a visit to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops that half of Hamas’s terrorists had been killed or wounded, and that 18 of its 24 battalions had been destroyed thus far.
Netanyahu spoke at Latrun, a military site overlooking the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road where British-trained Jordanian troops had held out against Israel in the 1948 war. Israel captured it in 1967 after Jordan joined in that war by shelling western Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets a female IDF soldier at Latrun, Israel, February 5, 2024 (Haim Zach GPO)
In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu said (via Government Press Office translation):
Total victory is essential because it ensures the security of Israel. Total victory is the only way in which we can ensure additional historic peace agreements, which await. Total victory will strike a mortal blow against the axis of evil: Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis and – of course – Hamas.
Therefore, there is no substitute for total victory. One need only to think of what would happen without total victory: The displaced will not return, the next massacre will only be