Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the deadly shooting attack in which three Israeli civilians were murdered at the Allenby Crossing during the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday.
""This is a difficult day. A barbaric terrorist murdered three of our citizens in cold blood at the Allenby Bridge. On behalf of the Government and myself, I send condolences to the families of those who were murdered.," Netanyahu said. "We are surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran's axis of evil."
"In recent days, abominable terrorists murdered six of our hostages and three Israel Police officers in cold blood. The murderers do not differentiate between us. They want to murder us all, right and left, secular and religious, Jews and non-Jews, down to the last one," he said.
Netanyahu stated that "what prevents the destruction of our people, as in previous times, is the strength of the State of Israel and the power of the IDF: Our soldiers' spirit of heroism, the police officers, the men and women of our security forces, the supreme sacrifice of our fallen heroes and the stamina of our people – these make all the difference. When we stand together, our enemies cannot overcome us; therefore, their main objective is to divide us and to sow discord among us."
The Prime Minister then spoke of Hamas' psychological warfare strategy against Israel. "Last weekend, the German newspaper Bild published an official Hamas document that revealed its action plan: To sow discord among us, to use psychological warfare on the hostages' families, to apply internal and external political pressure on the Government of Israel, to tear us part from within, and to continue the war until further notice, until Israel is defeated."
"The great majority of Israel's citizens are not falling into this Hamas trap. They know that we are fully committed to achieving the objectives of the war: To eliminate Hamas, to return all of our hostages, to ensure that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel and to return our residents in the north and south securely to their homes," he said. "We will stand together. We will wield the sword of David together and with G-d's help, we will win."
"One more word. There are those who ask – 'Shall the sword devour forever?' . In the Middle East, without the sword, there is no 'forever'," Netanyahu concluded.