Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the week-long bombardment of Gaza “was just the beginning” of a harsh reprisal against Hamas, whose operatives launched a land-sea-air assault on Israel last week, killing over 1,300 people.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the week-long bombardment of Gaza “was just the beginning” of a harsh reprisal against Hamas, whose operatives launched a land-sea-air assault on Israel last week, killing over 1,300 people.
According to the Israeli army, ground soldiers conducted “localized” raids into Gaza in the last 24 hours. The raids were intended to “cleanse the area of terrorists and weaponry,” as well as to locate “missing persons,” according to the army. During last week’s attacks, Israel claims that Hamas abducted over 150 Israeli, international, and dual national hostages.
“Over the past 24 hours, IDF (Israeli military) forces carried out localised raids inside the territory of the Gaza Strip to complete the effort to cleanse the area of terrorists and weaponry,” a statement issued by the Israel Defense Forces stated.
The Israeli military announced today that an attack killed a senior Hamas commander who oversaw the group’s aerial operations in Gaza City. Murad Abu Murad was killed when Israeli fighter planes attacked a Hamas operation center.
The Israeli military announced today that “several terrorists” were attempting to enter Israel from Lebanon. According to a spokeswoman, Israeli authorities “identified a terrorist cell that attempted to infiltrate from Lebanon into Israeli territory,” and a drone attack “targeted the terrorist cell and killed a number of the terrorists.”
Following the attacks, at least 1,900 Gazans — including over 600 children — have been killed in wave after wave of Israeli airstrikes on the densely populated Gaza enclave.
As the violence in the region worsens, tensions have spread to neighboring Middle Eastern countries and beyond, with rallies erupting in major cities in support of Palestinians and condemnation of Israeli bombings on residential buildings, killing people. Thousands of Palestinian supporters demonstrated in Beirut, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, and Bahrain.
On its northern front, Israel is also engaged in a separate conflict with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia. The Israeli army stated it was “responding with artillery fire towards Lebanese territory” after a bomb damaged the border fence.
An Israeli strike in south Lebanon killed a Reuters video journalist, while two other Reuters reporters, two from AFP, and two from Al Jazeera were injured.
The UN stated the Israeli military’s advise to Gaza’s 1.1 million Palestinians to flee to the south within 24 hours was “impossible.” “Forcing population transfers constitutes a crime against humanity, and collective punishment is prohibited under international humanitarian law,” a spokesperson for the United Nations stated.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hospitals in Gaza are failing to cope with the sheer number of dead and injured as a result of Israeli bombings and shelling. According to the WHO, Gaza’s health system is “at a breaking point.”