As the Israeli army continued to battle Hamas militants in several locations along the Gaza Strip who the day before infiltrated Israel by land, air and sea in an unprecedented attack launched by the Palestinian extremist group against the Hebrew State, the families of kidnapped Israelis desperate. “We don’t have a state. I’ve been looking for my daughter for 27 hours and no one is helping us,” Alin Atias complained to Channel 12. His daughter was one of hundreds of young people at a party in the US. desert in the early morning hours on Saturday, when it was interrupted by armed Palestinians who killed and kidnapped many of those present and took them to Gaza. “Benjamin Netanyahu, I beg you, send helicopters. Please find her,” Alin launched in an appeal to the Israeli prime minister.
The issue of the hostages – at least a hundred, according to the Israeli government, including women and children – is now one of the biggest concerns for Israel, in a dilemma between negotiating their release, as Palestinian extremists hope to bring about the return of some of its men held in Israeli prisons, or launching a ground operation against Gaza in an attempt to rescue them.
Having now officially declared a state of war, Netanyahu appointed retired Brigadier General Gal Hirsh, a veteran of the 2006 Lebanon War, to manage the Israeli hostage issue.
At the same time, the Israeli government asked Egypt, the main mediator between the Palestinians and the Jewish state, for help in negotiating the release of the kidnapped Israelis. Egypt has been in contact with the Israeli and Palestinian parties since Saturday evening, as well as with mediators in Washington, Amman, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, to stop the current escalation, return to the negotiating table and listen to the terms of both sides. The main conditions are “stopping Palestinian attacks and handing over all kidnapped Israelis and the bodies of Israelis held by Hamas,” the sources said, confirming information reported by the Palestinian Authority. Wall Street Journal.
In a statement to the country, Netanyahu asked Israelis to prepare for a “long and difficult” war. The Prime Minister is being pressured by the opposition to form a national unity government to tackle the war. Benny Ganz, the leader of the National Unity Party, said this to the newspaper Haaretz available to join the executive branch and form a “war cabinet to manage the fight against Gaza and other areas.”
‘Enemy forces’ are still in Israel
The army admitted yesterday that there were still Palestinian militants on Israeli soil. “There are still enemy forces in Israel, most of the infiltrators tried to flee back to Gaza and were killed in the fence,” spokesman Daniel Hagari explained. Residents of the southern areas where fighting continued were warned to stay at home, while at the same time the total evacuation of these locations close to the Gaza Strip continued. Israel sent tens of thousands of soldiers with the mission to “liberate hostages” and “kill every terrorist present in Israel,” Hagari explained.
Surprised by the attack by Hamas, the extremist group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, the Israeli army was slow to respond. But this Sunday, troops – including the reservists who had until now been on strike in protest against the government’s reforms – were mobilizing and predicting a ground operation against Palestinian territory. Netanyahu himself spoke of retaliation “with a scale and intensity unlike anything the enemy has felt so far.” And he vowed to “reach every place where Hamas is hiding.”
For the time being, attacks on Gaza from the air continued, with Israeli aviation claiming to have hit more than 800 targets linked to Hamas. But in a small area – just 20 by 40 km – where more than 2.3 million people live, Israeli attacks have also hit the civilian population, with many people trying to escape or taking refuge in schools run by the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees . According to UNRWA, there were more than 20,000 displaced people this Sunday. A spokesman for the Hamas government said 13 towers and residential buildings were destroyed, while another 159 residential units were destroyed, in addition to more than 1,200 apartments that were partially damaged.
Authorities in Gaza reported 413 deaths, including 78 children, and more than 2,300 injured, while on the Israeli side the number of fatalities rose to more than 700, with more than 2,200 injured admitted to hospitals, 350 of whom were in serious condition .
Facing fighting in the South, Israel also started the day under fire in the North, with the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah firing rockets into Israeli territory without causing any casualties. Israel responded with artillery fire across the United Nations-guarded border. “We warn Hezbollah not to interfere in this,” Israeli army spokesman Richard Hecht said, stressing that “if they come, we are ready.”
After Hamas’s attack on Saturday, which began with the firing of thousands of rockets, one of the concerns is the spread of the conflict, especially the resurgence of tensions at the Israel-Lebanon border.
Solidarity with one side and the other
Internationally, Israel’s old enemies rushed to show their solidarity with the Palestinians. In Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan and Iran, many took to the streets to protest against the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip. In Tehran, President Ebrahim Raisi defended “the Palestinians’ right to self-defense” and warned Israel that the country may have to respond for “endangering the security of the region.” And he left a call for Muslim governments to “support the Palestinian nation,” praising the “resistance” of Hamas and Islamic Jihad (another Palestinian extremist group).
Precisely in the region, Egypt and Jordan called for intensifying “regional and international efforts” to halt the escalation of violence between Gaza and Israel. The president, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, and the king, Abdullah II, also agreed to intensify communications between their countries to “move towards a global and fair solution to the Palestinian issue, based on a two-state solution.”
The conflict is now beginning to spread beyond the borders of Israel and the Palestinian territories. In Alexandria, Egypt, two Israeli tourists were shot dead by a police officer. And countries like France and the United Kingdom, where there are large Jewish communities, have already begun tightening security around mosques and Jewish schools.
In the West, reactions were in solidarity with Israel. At the end of the day, the United States, its most important ally, announced the sending of military aid. After a phone call with Netanyahu, President Joe Biden said he had ordered the US fleet in the Mediterranean – including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford – approaching the coast of Israel and strengthening fighter squadrons in the region. Biden expressed his “unwavering support” and warned other parties to stay out of the conflict.
Source: DN
