Israel expanding territorial control in Gaza to 70%, Netanyahu says

Netanyahu also thanked security forces who acted quickly to eliminate a terrorist and capture his associate responsible for a deadly attack earlier on Sunday.

By JNS

Israel controls more than 60% of the Gaza Strip and will soon control 70%, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday.

Israel is fighting terrorism on all fronts, he said.

“In the Gaza Strip, we are clinching Hamas from all sides. … We don’t allow them to arm themselves or harm us, and we also eliminate their senior commanders,” he said.

In Lebanon, Israeli forces killed 350 terrorists in “the past week alone,” the prime minister continued.

The Israel Defense Forces captured Beaufort Ridge, uncovered a huge underground infrastructure, and is completing the eradication of terror villages near the border, he added.

“We are hitting them very hard, and we know that Hezbollah is on the run. We will not allow firing on our territory or on our communities, and we will act accordingly,” Israel’s leader said.

“In Judea and Samaria, along the seam line, the IDF, the Shin Bet and the Israel police thwart hundreds of terror attacks a year,” he said.

The security forces are not always successful, he noted, referring to the terrorist attack in central Israel on Sunday morning that took the life on one civilian and injured several others.

The attack was carried out by a lone terrorist, according to Channel 12, which reported that the terrorist was Omar Yassin, a 21-year-old resident of Taibeh, an Arab city in central Israel. IDF troops raided his home.

Netanyahu thanked the forces who acted quickly to eliminate the terrorist and capture his associate.