In an address to Israeli citizens the evening after a senior Hezbollah commander and top Hamas leader were killed in separate strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that there are “challenging days ahead of us,” as the country faces threats on multiple fronts.

“We are prepared for any scenario, and will stand united and determined against any threat. Israel will exact a very heavy price for aggression against us from any arena,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday evening in a televised speech.

While Israel has taken responsibility for the Tuesday night assassination of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, it has not claimed the strike in Tehran hours later that took out Hamas’ political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh. Netanyahu only addressed the former in his speech. 

“We settled the bill with [Sayed] Mohsen,” he said, using Shukr’s alias, “and we will settle the bill with anyone who hurts us. Anyone who kills our children, anyone who murders our citizens, anyone who harms our country — will pay the price.”

Netanyahu reiterated previous Israeli statements that Shukr had been directly responsible for the murder of the 12 Druze children killed in a Hezbollah strike in Majdal Shams in northern Israel on Saturday, and added that Shukr had been responsible “for the murder of many other Israeli citizens; he was responsible for the incessant attack on our citizens in the northern communities during the nine months of the war.” 

Netanyahu also referred to the $5 million reward issued “for good reason” by the U.S. for Shukr in 2019 over his role in the Oct. 23, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. military personnel and wounded 128 others.

“He was a key factor in the connection between Iran and Hezbollah and was responsible for the organization’s missiles,” Netanyahu added.

“Already in the first days of the war I said that the war would take time and that it would require patience from all of us. I repeat this even today,” Netanyahu stressed. “For months now, there hasn’t been a week that we haven’t been told from home and abroad to end the war.” 

“I didn’t give in to those voices then — and I won’t give in to them today either. If we had given in to these pressures, we would not have eliminated senior Hamas officials and thousands of terrorists. We would not have destroyed terrorist infrastructure and extensive underground infrastructure of Hamas — it would have simply remained with them,” he continued, also noting Israel’s takeover of the Philadelphi Corridor buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza and the Rafah border crossing.

Netanyahu argued that these steps have enabled Israel to “create the conditions to bring us closer to a deal” that would both free the hostages, ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel and allow evacuated residents of the north and south of the country to return to their homes.

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum released a statement earlier Wednesday saying, “While military operations over the past ten months have achieved significant security gains, true achievement can only be realized with the release of all 115 hostages still in captivity.”