Netanyahu tells Tel Nof air crews Israel will not bow to withdrawal pressure

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed pilots and ground crews at the Israeli Air Force base at Tel Nof, according to a press release issued by the Israeli government and dated 29.09.2026. In remarks published by his office, he described Israeli forces as acting without pause on several fronts and listed recent operations in the Gaza Strip, including the killing of a senior Hamas commander.

Netanyahu also said Israel had indications that its enemies would try to strike ahead of the country's elections, and used the setting of the air base to warn them off. He said he was resisting what he called pressure to withdraw and to give up gains made by Israeli troops, and pledged not to allow that to happen.

What the prime minister said about Gaza

According to the government statement, Netanyahu told the crews that two days earlier Israel had killed the man who abducted Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or. Both were taken hostage and held in Gaza; Netanyahu noted in the same remarks that Israel had brought them home. He then said that on the previous night Israeli forces had killed the commander of Hamas's Northern Gaza Brigade, adding that the man's predecessors in the post had also been killed.

Netanyahu said that in recent weeks Israel had killed more than 100 people he described as terrorists, and stressed that this figure referred to Gaza alone. The statement does not name the commander, the abductor, or any of the others killed, and gives no locations or dates for the individual operations beyond Netanyahu's own references to the timing.

Lebanon and the Ali Taher Ridge

The prime minister also referred to Israeli activity in Lebanon, where Israel has fought the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. He invoked the Ali Taher Ridge, telling his audience they would remember what Israel had done there. The published remarks do not describe that operation, when it took place, or what it involved, and assume the listener already knows.

Why Tel Nof

Tel Nof is one of the Israeli Air Force's main bases, and the Air Force is a branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the country's military. Israeli leaders often choose air bases as the backdrop for warnings to adversaries because the Air Force is the military arm able to strike far beyond Israel's borders. Netanyahu drew on that image directly, calling the base part of the "long arm of the State of Israel" and saying Israel could "reach you anywhere, at any time."

His message to Israel's enemies, as published, was short: "Don't mess with us, not now, and not ever." He praised the pilots as heroic and the ground crews as outstanding. A photograph accompanying the release is credited to Ma'ayan Toaf of the Government Press Office (GPO), the body that accredits journalists and distributes official images in Israel.

Pressure and the elections

Two themes in the speech are political as much as military. First, Netanyahu said there were tremendous achievements but also tremendous pressures, which he framed as pressure to pull back and surrender what soldiers had secured. He did not say where that pressure was coming from, whether from foreign governments, from within Israel, or both.

Second, he linked the security situation to the coming vote, saying Israel had indications that enemies intended to attack before the elections. The release identifies the current government as the 37th Government of Israel. It gives no date for the elections and offers no detail on the nature of the indications or the source of the threat.

What we do not know

This account rests on a single source: the prime minister's own published remarks, released by the government. No independent news organisation's report of the visit was available to us, and the claims in the speech have not been confirmed by any other party. In particular:

• The identities of the Hamas commander and of the man described as the kidnapper of Argamani and Or are not given.
• The figure of more than 100 people killed in Gaza is Netanyahu's own and is not broken down or sourced.
• The release does not explain what happened at the Ali Taher Ridge.
• The nature of the pressure to withdraw, and who is applying it, is not specified.
• The intelligence behind the warning of a pre-election attack is not described, and neither is the election date.
• The statement does not say whether Hamas, Hezbollah or any other party responded.