Netanyahu vows revenge after Hamas hands over bodies of captives
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said “we will eliminate Hamas”, after the Palestinian group returned the bodies of four Israeli captives on Thursday, including the infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother, Ariel.
In a recorded address released after the captives’ remains were handed over, Netanyahu said that all Israelis feel “pain mixed with rage”.
Netanyahu added that the “the four coffins” obliged Israel to ensure “more than ever” that there was no repeat of the Hamas-led October 7 attacks.
“Our hearts may be broken, but our spirit is not,” he said.
“Our loved ones’ blood is shouting at us from the soil and is obliging us to settle the score with the despicable murderers, and we will,” he added.
Netanyahu tells military to carry out ‘intensive’ West Bank operation after bus explosions
We have been reporting on explosions in the Israeli city of Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, on Thursday night, in which three empty buses were blown up in a suspected “terror” attack.
In response, Prime Minister Netanyahu has instructed the military to carry out an “intensive” operation in the occupied West Bank, his office has said.
Posting on X, Netanyahu’s office said he had “completed a security assessment” with senior government and security personnel, concluding that the incident was an attempted “chain of mass bus bombings”.
“The Prime Minister also ordered the Israel Police and the [Shin Bet] to increase preventative activity against additional attacks in Israeli cities,” his office said.
