Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah no longer pose significant threats in the region due to Israel’s degradation of their capabilities.
Netanyahu spoke on Sunday at the IDF Northern Command, where he visited alongside Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.
“Iran is not the same Iran, Hezbollah is not the same Hezbollah, and Hamas is not the same Hamas,” he declared, saying “terrorist armies” are now “battered enemies” fighting for survival.
Commending IDF commanders for their participation in Israel’s “multi-arena campaign,” Netanyahu said Israel stepped up “surprising” and “attacking” its adversaries to prevent offensives.
The premier said the “immense force” against Iran and its proxies was achieving “great accomplishments,” crediting the achievements for the “visible cracks in the terrorist regime in Tehran.”
Netanyahu recalled how former Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, who was eliminated in 2024, created a massive force with the intention of perpetrating carnage in Israel.
“We eliminated Nasrallah; thousands of Hezbollah terrorists,” he boasted. “We eliminated the immense threat of 150,000 missiles and rockets that were intended to destroy the cities of Israel.
But Netanyahu emphasized that Hezbollah still has “a residual capability to launch rockets,” revealing his discussions with IDF commanders focused on ways to remove the threats.
Meanwhile, N12, an Israeli news platform, has reported the government’s plans to invite the United States to move some of its Middle East bases to Israel and build new ones after the war.
However, European leaders on Sunday criticized Netanyahu for allegedly preventing Catholics from celebrating Palm Sunday in Jerusalem’s Holy Places.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro said the action was done “without any explanation, reasons or motives,” stressing that coexistence is impossible without tolerance,
“We condemn this unjustified attack on religious freedom and demand that Israel respect the diversity of beliefs and international law,” Sánchez wrote in a post on X.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney similarly faulted Israel’s decision to block the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem from marking Palm Sunday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Carney said the act “further violates the longstanding status quo of Jerusalem’s Holy Sites,” adding that people of every faith in Jerusalem should be able to worship freely and without fear.
