Prime Minister Netanyahu visits an Iron Dome battery. Photo: GPO.

On Sunday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed doubts that the current ceasefire between Hamas and Israel would stick in the long-term. According to the Jerusalem Post, during a talk to a group of pilots at the Palmachim air base, he said, “If the quiet is kept, you can continue preparing for the next campaign.” But he warned if it is not kept “you will go back to hitting what remains of the Hamas stockpile of weapons.”

“The Hamas weapons caches suffered very severely from this operation. The precise and accurate operation of the IDF destroyed most of the missiles aimed at the center of the country and thousands of missiles aimed at southern Israel,” Israel’s Channel 2 reported him as telling the assembled group.

Netanyahu, who has received criticism from large segments of the Israeli public for his agreement to a ceasefire also told the pilots “the minute the operation accomplished its goal, there was no reason to continue it.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz, and IAF commander Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel joined Netanyahu on his visit to the air base.