Too soon to say if long-term calm attained; we will not tolerate rocket fire, PM says

He says it’s “too soon to say” if Israel’s goal of sustained calm has been achieved. But the goal of harming Hamas and the other terror groups, and establishing the capacity to prevent them rearming, has been met.

Hamas was “surprised by the intensity of our response” to its breach of the last truce last Tuesday. “I said that attrition would be met with a pounding. The terror towers fell” — a reference to Israel’s bombing of high-rises said to contain Hamas command centers — “and Hamas understood that the price was very costly.”

Netanyahu says: “We will not tolerate the [rocket] ‘drizzle’ on any part of Israel.”

He hails the resilience of the southern residents, the countless volunteers, the soldiers. “The entire nation is deeply grateful,” he says of the soldiers.