Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participated on Sunday evening in the Purim Megilla reading with the commanders and soldiers of the Military Police Corps’ Erez Battalion.
Netanyahu told the soldiers: "I am very impressed with your work at all times, but especially these days. The challenges you face have increased significantly, to say the least.”
“Missions have been intensified and so has your performance. You are defending the State of Israel, the citizens of Israel, around the clock, in many missions, you put yourselves at risk and some even sacrificed their lives. I want to commend you and tell you – well done. Thank you very much."
He added, "I want to thank the Rabbi for reading the Megilla so eloquently and also for the important comments you made alongside the reading – these are very important comments; they are not marginal. They are at the crux of the matter. Today we celebrate Purim. An antisemitic enemy, the evil Haman, arose more than 2,000 years ago in ancient Persia, and sought to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth. Those Jews rose, united, fought and won a total victory.”
"Today in modern Persia, a new enemy has arisen – the Iranian regime, which seeks to destroy the Jewish state. We have already seen what one of this enemy’s messengers did. On October 7th Hamas committed, what even President Biden termed ‘absolute evil.’ Absolute evil cannot be defeated by leaving it intact in Rafah. Just like in ancient times, just like our brethren, we too must unite, fight and win. We will enter Rafah and achieve total victory. We eliminated Haman, we will eliminate Sinwar as well," Netanyahu said.