JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday addressed this year’s conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington. <br> </p> <p>Speaking via videoconference, Netanyahu addressed the latest escalations between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying Israel was “prepared to do a lot more” against the latter. <br> </p> <p>“In the last 24 hours, the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] destroyed major Hamas terrorist installations on a scale not seen since the end of the military operation in Gaza four years ago,” Netanyahu asserted. <br> </p> <p>“We will do what is necessary to defend our people and to defend our state,” he added. <br> </p> <p>He went on to thank U.S. President Donald Trump for his decision this week to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. <br> </p> <p>“Yesterday at the White House, President Trump again made history,” Netanyahu said. “He formally recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.”<br> </p> <p>“Israel holds the high ground, and we shall never, ever give it up,” he added.<br> </p> <p>Netanyahu also praised continued support for Israel by both the Republican and Democratic parties, saying: “That is how it has always been, and that's how it should always be.” <br> </p> <p>“I can tell you that alliance [between the U.S. and Israel] has never been stronger,” he added. <br> </p> <p>Israel has long lobbied Washington to recognize its claim over the Golan Heights, but previous U.S. administrations had refrained from doing so. </p> <p>Israel seized the strategic plateau from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and continues to occupy roughly two-thirds of the wider Golan region. </p> <p>In 1981, it officially annexed the territory in a move unanimously rejected at the time by the UN Security Council.
