Netanyahu hails 'exceptional success' in Gaza campaign as truce appears to hold

PM says 'public doesn't know everything' about gains in Operation Guardian of the Walls, warns Hamas not to believe country 'will tolerate drizzle of rockets'; Gantz vows group would pay 'very heavy' for breaching ceasefire

News Agencies|Updated:05.21.21 | 12:17

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday hailed Israel's 11 days of intense fighting with the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip as an "exceptional success," hours after a ceasefire to end the conflict went into effect.
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The ceasefire that took hold at 2am Friday brought to an end thousands of rocket attacks on Israel, primarily against its southern population centers, and waves of IDF strikes on terror targets in Gaza. 
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu displays Friday a list of Palestinian terrorists he says were eliminated by Israel during the Gaza fighting 
(Photo: GPO)
It appeared to be holding Friday, offering Israelis and Gazans their first day of quiet in almost two weeks.  
"We achieved our goals in the operation," Netanyahu said of the campaign primarily targeted at Hamas, the Islamist terror group that controls Gaza, and Islamic Jihad, the second largest armed group in the enclave. 
He said that "the public doesn't know everything" about Israel's gains in the operation "and neither does Hamas."
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Iron Dome activates in southern Israel as rockets are fired from northern Gaza last week 
(Photo: AFP)
Netanyahu said Israel's strikes had killed "more than 200 terrorists" in Gaza, including 25 senior commanders.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who was IDF chief of staff during Israel's last war in Gaza in 2014, added that Israel's operation followed plans that had "been prepared for years and months."
"The military action is over. Now is the time for political action," Gantz said.
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Defense Minister Benny Gantz warns Hamas against breaching the ceasefire 
(Photo: GPO)
Netanyahu also warned the Gaza factions against any further attacks on Israel.  
"If Hamas thinks we will tolerate a drizzle of rockets, it is wrong," Netanyahu said. 
The prime minister vowed to respond with "a new level of force" against any aggression anywhere in Israel. Gantz also warned Hamas it would pay a "heavy, very heavy" price if it breached the ceasefire.
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The aftermath of an IDF strike in Gaza this week 
(Photo: AFP)
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry has put the death toll from Israel's strikes at 243, while 12 people were killed in Israel, where the Iron Dome missile defense system successfully intercepted the vast majority of the rockets fired at population centers. 
The first test of the Egyptian-brokered truce Friday afternoon, just hours after the fighting officially ended. 
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Rockets fired from Gaza at Israel on Thursday 
(Photo: AFP)
Scattered clashes broke out between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, where previous confrontations were a main trigger for the 11 days of fighting.
Palestinians hurled stones and Israeli police fired stun grenades and tear gas shortly after Friday prayers.
Immediately after Friday prayers hundreds of Palestinians had held a celebratory demonstration at al-Aqsa in which they waved Palestinian flags and Hamas banners. It was unclear what set off the clashes.

First published: 14:59, 05.21.21

6Comments

6.

Israel is a TOTALITARIAN DICTATORSHIP POLICE STATE

Israelis have only one of the following options obey submit capitulate slavery imprisonment or be destroyed. Most choose the prior which means accepting all the BS and the stories that make Israel as pure as fresh snow, and as innocent as a newborn.What a JOKE said a famous tennis player.

05.23.21

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5.

Be careful with Egypt, they are ones who want Jerusalem

Be careful with Egypt, they are ones who want Jerusalem! Hamas is just a convenient tool! So be careful with the solidification talks with Egypt. They should hold solidification talks in gaza not with us. The land is ours, and we can go wherever we want, our police forces can go anywhere within our territory, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan river bank. Jerusalem is ours and non negotiable, mount Moriah the place of the Akedah the binding of Isaak & place of the two temples is ours, it is where Adonai said wanted to be dwelling among the Jewish Nation and the mortals of this world, but the Sheshinah is only in the Bet Hamikdasz built by Jewish. Any other building on Mount Moriah, has no holiness, Unless they have a different god, not the G-D of the Jewish, not the G-D that gave us the Torah on mount Sinai, the Sheshinah of this One rests only with the Bet Hamkdasz of the Jewish! Adonai said the House we the Jewish build for HIM, will be at the end of the days a House fof prayer for all the nations. This is should be the Bet Hamkdasz of the Jews nothing else! Our Bet Hamikdasz was build 2800 hundreds ago, the Turkish house was put there more than 1000 years after our Bet Hamikdasz was destroyed by the Romans! That Turkish house has no holiness in it, it is not enough just to put any building in the place of Bet Hamkdasz of the Jewish, you must yourself be Jewish!! the the Sheshiinah will be rest there! So our police forces can enter that building if there is disorder, it isn our territory and it has no holiness in it! At least for sure not our Adonai holiness, may be of another gods, and idols but then they need to go to Mekka!!!

Manasseh ben Yehudah| 05.23.21

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4.

deadwood

it is more than time to replace bibi not just on allegations before the court. Rather, his ignorance of how to attack the enemy puts him iin the company of ignoramuses olmert and livni, along with peres and beilin. he appears to not knowing the basics of defensible borders. his sits before tv screens with a dumfounded confused look on his face. gantz appears stronger as does Bennett and barkat. boot him out of office already,

igal| 05.22.21

11

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