​​(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this morning (Sunday, 12 August 2018), at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, made the following remarks:
 
"We are in the midst of a campaign against terror in Gaza. It entails an exchange of blows; it will not end in one strike. Our demand is clear – a complete ceasefire. We will not suffice with less than this. As of now, we have destroyed hundreds of Hamas military targets, and in each round the IDF exacts an additional heavy price. I will not reveal here our operational plans, they are ready. Our objective is to restore the quiet to residents of the south and the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip; this goal will be achieved in full.
 
Last night we received cogent testimony of the opposition to the existence of the State of Israel and the urgency of the Nation-State Law. Yesterday we saw PLO flags in the heart of Tel Aviv. We heard the calls: 'With blood and fire we will redeem Palestine.' Many of the demonstrators want to abrogate the Law of Return, cancel the national anthem, fold up our flag and cancel Israel as the national state of the Jewish people and turn it – as their spokespersons said – into an Israeli-Palestinian state, and others say: A state of all its citizens.
 
It is for precisely this that we passed the Nation-State Law. We are proud of our state, our flag and our national anthem. Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. The individual rights of its citizens are anchored very well in the basic laws and other laws. Now it is clearer than ever that the Nation-State Law is also necessary.
 
It is necessary in order to ensure the future of the State of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people. We passed this law and we will uphold it."