Press Release

At the start of the meeting, the Prime Minister and the ministers stood for a moment of silence in memory of Netanya Mayor Miriam Feirberg-Ikar, of blessed memory, who passed away last Friday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Sunday, 23 November 2025), at the start of the Government meeting [translated from Hebrew]:

“We will shorten the government meeting today so that we can attend the major event in memory of Miriam Feirberg in Netanya. Miriam was a groundbreaking leader. She was the Mayor of Netanya for almost 30 years. This is an unbelievable thing, but it is believable, because everyone who knew her knows her deep commitment to the city, her enthusiasm, her initiative, and also her ability to stand up to difficulties, including the difficulties unjustly placed upon her in a legal attack, which, fortunately, she was finally extricated from. But she stood up to it with pride.

She was also very committed, as I know, and as each of you can also attest, because every conversation with her was: ‘What can you do for Netanya? What can we do together for Netanya?’ Without exaggeration. I don’t recall a single conversation with her that didn’t include – not only didn’t include – but wasn’t guided by this endeavor. So, I request, with your permission, that we stand for a moment of silence in her memory.

We are continuing to strike terrorism on several fronts. This weekend, the IDF struck in Lebanon, and we will continue to do everything necessary to prevent Hezbollah from re-establishing its threat capability against us. This is also what we are doing in the Gaza Strip. Since the ceasefire, Hamas has not stopped violating it, and we are acting accordingly. There have been several attempts by them to infiltrate our territory beyond the yellow line and try to harm our soldiers. We have thwarted this with great force and also retaliated and exacted a very heavy price. That includes many terrorists we eliminated, and also terrorists we captured from the tunnels in Rafah.

All the talk that ‘We must receive approvals for this’ from one source or another is simply an absolute lie. We operate independently of anyone. Immediate actions to thwart attacks are taken by the IDF automatically. As for the responses, that goes through the Minister of Defense and eventually reaches me, and we decide independently of any factor, and that is how it should be. Israel is responsible for its own security.”