Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed Israeli citizens on live television Monday evening after Hamas fired a mortar shell that killed four people in southern Israel.

“We knew that we would have difficult days,” he said. “This is a hard and painful day.”

“Patience and determination are required in order to fight a terror organization that seeks to destroy us,” the prime minister added. “We will not complete the operation without neutralizing the tunnels whose only purpose is to annihilate our children and our civilians.

“The action against the tunnels is the first step in demilitarizing Gaza,” Netanyahu declared. “The discussion about demilitarizing Gaza must be a part of any solution, and the international community must demand this with fervor, instead of letting money that enters Gaza to reach Hamas, and allowing concrete that enters to be used in tunnels.

“There must be an end to this,” Netayahu said. “It is unacceptable the citizens of Israel will live underthreat of death. Killing from above and killing from below.

“We must be prepared for a prolonged campaign,” he stressed. “We shall continue to act with determination unil we achieve our goals.”