Photo: AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg
Fighting between members of Hamas and the Israeli army in the south of Israel continued on Monday night. Rockets were again fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel, which retaliated with airstrikes. About 700 Israelis and over 400 Palestinians were killed, and thousands were wounded and injured on both sides. Israel is preparing for a major military operation against Hamas. The US has sent an aircraft carrier to the Eastern Mediterranean
Even on Monday, Israeli forces failed to establish full control over the territory along the border with the Gaza Strip and "clear it of terrorists." Fights were also fought on Sunday evening. Hamas again fired dozens of rockets at Israel, which retaliated with airstrikes on hundreds of targets in Gaza. The number of victims on both sides is growing hour by hour, and so is the hatred, anger and desire for revenge.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared martial law and announced a "long and complicated war". In the first phase, the goal of the Israelis is to "cleanse" their own territory of Palestinian terrorists. In the second phase, the hostages kidnapped by Hamas members and dragged to Gaza should be released. Hamas claims to be holding over 100 Israelis, in Israel officials are talking about several dozen kidnapped fellow citizens who, it is assumed, were deployed as human shields by Hamas throughout Gaza. This makes future actions of the Israeli army difficult.
The third phase involves the "destruction" of Hamas.
For now, the Israeli army is mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists and sending them to the border with Gaza. Preparations are being made to penetrate the Palestinian territory. When and if the Israeli army will engage in fighting with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the most densely populated area in the world, where every window would represent a potential danger, is still unknown.
Israel has suspended electricity supplies to Gaza and cut off supply routes.
"The Open Gates of Hell"
Israel to tighten measures against Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to 'total blockade', including a ban on food and fuel, Defense Minister Yoav Galan said on Monday, describing the measure as part of the fight against "brutal men".Voice of America reports, .
An army spokesman said that Israel had deployed a record 300.000 reservists in response to the Hamas attack and was "going on the offensive" on multiple fronts..
Major General Ghassan Aliyan, a key official in the Israel Defense Forces, said Hamas had "opened the gates of hell" with its surprise attack and "will bear responsibility and pay for its actions."
Massacre at the music festival
The biggest trauma for the Israelis and the biggest problem for future military actions are the abducted compatriots. Social networks are flooded with videos of armed Palestinians taking abducted women, children, soldiers, and the elderly in different vehicles in an unknown direction. Some of them were literally pulled out of the houses where they live. There are likely Americans among the abductees, reports CNN. German media confirmed that Hamas kidnapped a German woman.
The massacre of the participants of the music festival in Kibbutz Reim, not far from the border with Gaza, on Saturday in the early hours of the morning shows that Hamas, in the spirit of the brutality of the notorious Islamic State, is ready for absolutely anything. Armed Palestinian terrorists invaded the young people who had spent the night there and started killing them indiscriminately. Israeli media speak of over 260 killed. Some were kidnapped and taken in the direction of Gaza. The festival was attended by guests from several countries.
At the same time, images of the destruction in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes are circulating in the Arab world. In a densely populated area, almost every Israeli rocket aimed at Hamas bases and the refuges of its leaders results in civilian casualties.
The intonation in the Arab media is that the action of Hamas against the "Israeli apartheid regime" is justified because it is the consequence of decades of oppression, killing and humiliation of Palestinians. The Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas, has been described as the world's "largest open-air prison".
Israel's unwillingness
The Israeli army is talking about about 1000 armed Palestinians who invaded Israeli territory at 22 locations.
Everything that happened caused a wave of feelings of insecurity among Israelis. They are hardened to individual terrorist attacks, or rocket attacks, but clashes have not been fought on the territory of Israel since the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
And this way of fighting terrorism is completely new. Israel was caught off guard, unprepared for this kind of coordinated action by Hamas.
The US is sending an aircraft carrier to the region
The death of "several American citizens" was confirmed in Washington.
The US diverted the USS Ford aircraft carrier and war cruisers in the direction of the Eastern Mediterranean.
The US military presence is a sign of support for Israel after the Hamas attack, NBC television reported.
The USA has the largest war zone outside of American territory in Israel. The White House announced that Israel has the right to self-defense and that it can count on all the support and assistance of America.
President Joe Biden has warned that no one is trying to "take advantage" of Israel's current weakness. The warning, which can also be understood as a threat, was addressed above all to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran and Syria, which support, finance and arm Hamas. The presence of the US Navy certainly supports Biden's warning.
JH/CNN/BBC/Spiegel/Al Jazeera
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