ASHDOD — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel will not allow its Mediterranean waters, seaports or shipping to be threatened, and pledged to make the country a world leader in surface and undersea warfare after a visit to the Navy base in Ashdod.
Netanyahu toured the base with Defense Minister Israel Katz. The two were briefed by the head of the Navy’s operations directorate and the Ashdod base commander on maritime challenges and on activity in the southern sector, including the routine security flotilla and the sector’s landing-craft company. They also viewed a display of weapons and other systems the force uses for defense and attack.
“The maritime space has essentially become an international battlefield,” Netanyahu said, pointing to the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb. He said Israel’s enemies want to extend that pressure to the Mediterranean, “our seaports, our maritime traffic,” and added, “Of course, we will not allow that to happen.”
Netanyahu said security officials told him they need more equipment. A sixth submarine has already arrived in Israel, he said, but commanders want additional submarines, more vessels and other means he declined to describe. “In this field as well, the above-water and underwater, I intend for Israel to be one of the leaders in the world in this type of combat,” he said. “We will protect the State of Israel also from the sea.”
The remarks came as Israel continues to treat sea lanes as a front in the wider regional confrontation, including disruption of shipping near the Red Sea approaches and concern over threats closer to home. Netanyahu did not announce a specific procurement budget or timeline, framing the comments as a direction for the force rather than a completed purchase plan.
Ashdod, one of Israel’s main commercial ports, sits on the southern Mediterranean coast and hosts a Navy base that supports patrols and amphibious units in the southern arena.
As reported by VINnews