‘No immunity’ for those who fire at Israel, Netanyahu says

Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s operation in Gaza will continue “until its goals are achieved” and could extend into the start of the school year, Benjamin Netanyahu said.

The Israeli prime minister also reiterated that Hamas is equal to the jihadist group ISIS

Netanyahu on Sunday at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting called on the residents of Gaza “to immediately evacuate any building from which Hamas is carrying out terrorist activity. Any such place is a target for us.”

“In recent days we have proven there is no immunity for those who fire at Israel’s citizens. This is true in all sectors and regarding all borders,” Netanyahu said.

Addressing directly the Israeli citizens living in areas on the border with Gaza, Netanyahu said: “I appreciate your resilience. I appreciate your suffering and I share your pain.” He promised that the government would approve a package of assistance for southern Israeli communities for during and after the operation.

Netanyahu told the Cabinet that: “Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas. They act in the same way. They are branches of the same poisonous tree. They are two extremist Islamic terrorist movements that abduct and murder innocents, that execute their own people, that shrink at nothing including the willful murder of children.”

“The State of Israel will continue to stand alongside the civilized world in its war against extremist and violent Islam,” Netanyahu said.