A sermon to the Israeli nation was addressed by Benjamin Netanyahu after the Israeli war council meeting. “The ground invasion will take place, despite the delays,” he stressed. Hamas members are ‘living dead’ he said.

“We have killed thousands of terrorists, and this is just the beginning. We are preparing for a ground invasion. I will not share details of how and when,” he clarified.

Netanyahu stated that “we are at the peak of a struggle for our existence”. As he pointed out, the two goals are the destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages.

He pointed out that there was a unanimous decision on the timing of the ground invasions. “Hamas/ISIS will pay the full price”, in the ground invasion, he pledged, and again called on the citizens of Gaza to head for southern Gaza.

Netanyahu stated that world leaders support Israel, and that they now understand that “Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas.”

The whole world, he noted, now understands that Israel’s struggle is its struggle, that this is “a struggle of light against darkness.”

Now is the time to “charge forward” together. “We will fight together and win together,” he concludes.

The Israeli prime minister also addressed any responsibility he may have for the October 7 massacre, saying that “everyone will have to give answers for the disaster, so will I – after the war.”

Israel’s government will designate official days of mourning across the country in commemoration of October 7, the Israeli prime minister announced.

The announcement came after the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had agreed to delay its ground operation in the Gaza Strip for the time being so that the United States would have time to send anti-missile systems to the area.

In particular, the Wall Street Journal reports that Israel agreed to the US request to deploy their air defenses to protect US troops in the region before the expected ground invasion of Gaza.