The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the kibbutz of Beeri and Kfar Azza this Saturday, in his first visit since the massacre committed by Hamas against their inhabitants.
In the closed-door visit to the ‘kibbutzim’ (former collectivist agricultural villages), Netanyahu saw the houses destroyed both by the attacks of the Hamas militias and by the missiles launched from the Gaza Strip and met with Israeli soldiers in the area, including the commander Colonel Ami Biton, head of the Parachute Brigade, reports the Yedioth Aharonoth newspaper.
In his meeting with the military, Netanyahu told the soldiers that “the continuation of the offensive [contra o Hamas] is underway” pending a possible large-scale ground incursion into the Gaza Strip, the first since Operation Cast Lead in 2008.
Netanyahu’s visit during a new missile alert in the center of the country. Hamas also announced a new attack on Ben Gurion International Airport and a new rocket launch against Ashdod and Ashkelon, with no casualties reported so far.
The Israeli Government has been the target of harsh criticism from the opposition, which denounced the total lack of preparation of the authorities in the face of the unprecedented attack by Hamas. Israel is currently under an emergency government by agreement between Netanyahu and the now minister without portfolio Benny Gantz, who also visited southern cities and promised to do everything possible to find those missing and kidnapped by Hamas.
“I know that it takes time and that the reality is difficult and indescribable. We will invest all possible efforts in all possible channels,” Gantz declared.
The Islamist group Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel a week ago with thousands of rockets and an incursion of armed militiamen by land, sea and air.
In response, Israel bombed several Hamas infrastructures in the Gaza Strip from the air and imposed a total siege on the territory, cutting off water, fuel and electricity supplies.
The attacks have already caused thousands of deaths and injuries in both territories.
In the last few hours, an Israeli ultimatum to the population of northern Gaza caused the flight of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of a region that has 1.1 million people, that is, half of the total population of the enclave, for fear of an imminent large-scale ground incursion by the Israeli army.
Source: TSF
