‘Op hit Hamas with the strongest blow they’ve ever received’

Netanyahu says that Israel has struck a significant blow to Hamas’s military infrastructure, and has thwarted all of its efforts to attack Israel, from the air, the sea, and the ground.

He says this is the strongest blow to Hamas since its inception.

Israel has thwarted its rockets. “We killed hundreds of terrorists, we dismantled its offensive tunnels, we thwarted all its efforts to attack us,” he says.

He says that if Hamas seeks a war of attrition against Israel, its attempts at attrition will be met with “a pounding,” against targets including “its commanders” — a possible reference to Mohammad Deif.

“If they fire, they’ll be hit back seven times as hard,” he says. “And if Hamas doesn’t understand this today, it will tomorrow. And if it doesn’t understand it tomorrow, it will the day after.”

In the Middle East, one needs patience as well as strength, he says.