Netanyahu says Gaza op boosted deterrence, confirms Flag March will be held as planned

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that his goal in the recent Operation Shield and Arrow in Gaza was to change Israel’s’ strategic position vis-a-vis the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, increasing deterrence.

“Something has changed,” the premier says, referring to Israel’s targeted assassinations of PIJ leaders to gut the organization’s command during the operation.

“Anyone coming to hurt us,” the prime minister says at the outset of his Likud party’s faction meeting at the Knesset, “will [now] better understand the meaning of the words ‘his blood is on his own hands.'”

Israel on Saturday night wrapped up the five-day conflict with PIJ, but the government and security forces are looking ahead to Thursday’s Jerusalem Day, planned, as usual, to be accompanied by a right-wing nationalist Flag March through the capital’s Old City, including its Muslim Quarter — which sparks annual tensions and calls to change its route to avoid disrupting locals’ daily routine. In 2021, the Jerusalem Day Flag March served as a pretext for the Hamas terror group to start an 11-day conflict.

“The flag march will continue as planned, as usual, and on its route,” Netanyahu confirms. The Israel Police similarly confirmed approving the contentious route earlier this week.

Netanyahu points to the 2021 conflict, dubbed Operation Guardians of the Walls, as another link in the “deterrence chain,” this time against Gaza’s ruling terror group, Hamas.

Netanyahu claims that the terror group “has not fired a single rocket into our territory” since that conflict.