Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences to the families of the eight soldiers killed Wednesday in operations in southern Lebanon in a video statement shortly after the IDF announced their deaths.

“I would like to send my sincere condolences to the families of our heroes who fell today in Lebanon, may God avenge them, and may their memory be a blessing,” he said at the outset.

“We are in the middle of a hard war against the axis of evil of Iran, which seeks to destroy us,” Netanyahu continued. “This will not happen because we will stand united, and with God’s help we will win together,” he adds.

But he also cited the roughly 100 hostages remaining in Hamas’ hands in the Gaza Strip, as well as Israelis who have fled their homes in the north because of Hezbollah.

“We will rescue our hostages in the south, we will return our inhabitants in the north, we will guarantee the eternity of Israel,” he said, finally, in a reference to the official goals of the war.

Recall that on Wednesday the IDF announced the death of one soldier and then seven others in separate incidents in southern Lebanon.