Marking 50 years since his brother Yoni Netanyahu fell in Operation Entebbe, Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed Sunday night that Israel will maintain its security presence in southern Lebanon as long as required to protect northern residents. He also pledged that, as long as he is prime minister, he will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.
Speaking at a memorial ceremony Sunday night marking 50 years since the death of his brother, Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu, at Entebbe, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel's security posture on two fronts. "We will remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon as long as needed to protect the residents of the north," he said. "Whatever the political developments, I will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons. As long as I am prime minister of Israel — this will not happen."
The prime minister's remarks at the Sunday memorial follow a series of similar statements over the past two days. On Saturday evening, at 18:43 Jerusalem, The Zioneer first reported a senior Israeli official saying Netanyahu had reiterated the same position and ordered the IDF to strike 300 Hezbollah targets and eliminate roughly 100 operatives in response to attacks. That same official source was cited across six subsequent versions that evening, each adding detail: a direct statement from the premier at 18:43, then a fuller confirmation of the 300-target counter-strike and 100-elimination figure, all attributed to the Prime Minister's Office. The thread evolved from a single official's report to a confirmed PMO statement, corroborated across multiple iterations by Saturday night.
As The Zioneer previously reported, Netanyahu has framed the struggle against Iran's nuclear ambitions as a 30-year personal mission, vowing on multiple occasions — including in conversations with President Trump reported by The Zioneer on Thursday — that Israel will not withdraw from the Lebanon buffer zone or abandon its northern residents. The premier's latest remarks at the memorial reinforce his security-first doctrine, which has been the dominant frame of his administration amid ongoing Israeli operations in southern Lebanon and renewed U.S. diplomatic efforts on an Iran nuclear memorandum.
What remains open: The statement was made on Sunday evening, one day after Saturday's series of confirmations, but no new military action or diplomatic development was cited as a trigger for the repetition. The precise timing of the memorial address relative to the past two days' operations was not specified in the thread, and no on-the-record quote from the memorial itself beyond the prime minister's own words was provided in the dispatch material.
6 developments
- ConfirmedNetanyahu: Israel will stay in security buffer zones as long as needed to defend itself
- StrongNetanyahu: Iran will not get nuclear weapons — with or without a deal
- DevelopingNetanyahu declares Israel will hold security zones in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon as long as needed
- DevelopingPM Netanyahu: 'Nation's heart aches' after four soldiers killed in Lebanon
Source and signal
- Internal intake