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Itongadol.- Israel will continue to hit out at terrorists wherever they are, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, in his first reaction to the killing of the two Palestinians wanted for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens this summer.
Netanyahu said that when the bodies of Naphtali Fraenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer, and Eyal Yifrach,were found in late June he pledged that Israel would not rest until “we will get to the last of the perpetrators, and it does not matter where they will hide.”
On Tuesday morning, he said, that pledge was fulfilled.
“I said from the very first that Hamas was responsible for the kidnapping and murder, and as the evidence that we brought mounted, Hamas admitted that it was also behind that attack,” he said.
Netanyahu, who thanked the security services for their efforts, said he spoke to the families of the murdered teens in the morning, and said that nothing could balm their pain or bring the boys back. “But I said there was justice, and that we carried out the mission that we pledged before them and the entire nation that we would carry out,” he said.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya\’alon praised security forces for finding and killing the murderers, saying "everyone who attempts to harm Israeli citizens will know that Israel will not rest until it finds everyone threatening its peace and the well-being of its citizens."
He said that he hoped the news that security forces had found the killers would bring some solace to the families of the boys.
Likud MK Ze\’ev Elkin called on Israel not to return the bodies of Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu Aysha to the Palestinians until Israel gets back the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed in action in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman said that "Israel has proved once again that we know how to bring to justice whoever dares raise a hand against us."
He added: "I call on Defense Minister Moshe Ya\’alon to delay sending back the bodies of the lowly terrorists until Hamas gives us back the bodies of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul."
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog praised security forces for finding the killers, saying "the war on terror must be waged without compromise and every terrorist who acts against Israel must know that we will find him and make him pay for his actions."