Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's convoy was delayed prior to his arrival for the official ceremony for Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem due to the suspicion of an unidentified drone in the area, the Prime Minister's Office announced on Wednesday.
Once the suspicion was ruled out, the convoy continued on its way, the statement said.
Netanyahu made a fiery speech at Wednesday night's Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem, comparing comparison between the Nazis and Hamas, and framing his calls for military victory as part of a historic path of rebirth following the murder of six million Jews.
"They are exactly like the Nazis. Like Hitler. Like Haman. They wish to kill and destroy all of the Jews," said Netanyahu. "It's not going to happen. We are going to annihilate these Hamas monsters."
"We will fight vigorously against the fanatical regimes that threaten the entire world. Doing this is the main lesson from the Holocaust," he said.
Holocaust Remembrance Day was a milestone in the path to destroying those that seek to eliminate us, said Netanyahu, comparing Hamas and their actions to those of the Nazis and the Holocaust.
Netanyahu said that he had been moved to tears when meeting Holocaust survivors this week, just as he was moved when during a diplomatic mission in Hungary. He had visited the bank of the Danube river, where a memorial of bronze shoes commemorated the murder of Hungarian Jews, executed and cast into the river.
Netanyahu drew a comparison between the shoes and the memorials of yellow ribbons and stickers of fallen soldiers, praising the heroism of those who rose up to fight in the ghettos, saying that their spirit sparked the rebirth of the nation.
"I thought to myself about the tremendous changes that we've achieved over the last eighty years -- After the Holocaust, we were like dust carried away by the wind," said Netanyahu. "Now we have a country, we have an army, we have a security force, we have soldiers with a fierce spirit."
Israel's successes
Netanyahu noted the successes of the military since the October 7 Massacre, crippling Hezbollah, Hamas, and the fall of the Assad regime. He threatened Iran with a similar fate if it continued down the path of nuclear weapons.
"No one will prevent us from defending ourselves," said Netanyahu, recalling the previous year's commemoration when Israel was threatened with arms embargoes. "If we need to stand alone, we shall stand alone. If we need to fight with our fingernails, we shall fight with our fingernails, but we will not relent."
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.