Israel is at war, and Hamas vows to kill detainees

 

                                                                Source Thejakartapost

    

    In an indication that it may be preparing a ground invasion in retaliation for the horrific attack by Hamas terrorists over the weekend, the Israeli military announced on Monday that it had summoned an unprecedented 300,000 reservists and was enforcing a complete embargo of the Gaza Strip.

     Following several hours of continuous Israeli aircraft bombardment, Gaza's Islamist organization, Hamas, declared it will execute one Israeli prisoner for each unexpected Israeli strike on a civilian home.

    Two days after they massacred hundreds of Israelis and took numerous captives in a raid that destroyed Israel's image as an unbeatable force, Palestinian fighters remained entrenched in a number of locations within Israel.

     According to Israeli TV stations, at least 2,600 people were injured in the Hamas attack, bringing the total number of fatalities to 900. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, since Saturday, Israeli airstrikes on the blockaded region have resulted in at least 687 Palestinian deaths and 3,726 injuries. Italian, Ukrainian, and American citizens were among the deceased; President Joe Biden of the United States said on Monday that at least 11 Americans had died. According to Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida, the organization has been protecting the Israeli prisoners in line with Islamic law, but it has threatened to kill and publicize civilian casualties. The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, echoing Hamas, claimed to be holding over thirty Israelis and requested Israel to stop attacking civilians if it was concerned about what would happen to the Israelis under its control.

    As Israel carried out severe counterattacks in Gaza, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a tighter embargo to keep gasoline and food from reaching the 2.3 million-person population there, drawing condemnation from throughout the world.

    According to Human Rights Watch's Israel and Palestine Director Omar Shakir, "denying food and electricity to the people living in an occupied territory is collective punishment, which is a war crime." As night fell, the Israeli airstrikes grew more intense, and according to witnesses, they attacked multiple Hamas security headquarters and ministries. Some residences and roads were destroyed by the strikes. Additionally, Israel bombed the private Palestinian Telecommunication Co.'s headquarters, which may have an impact on mobile, internet, and landline phone services.

     The sky was lit up by explosions and lightning, and thunder was mingled with the sound of bombings as it rained. A cabinet member from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party stated that the party could form a national unity government within hours with the support of opposition leaders, another indication of Israel's quick transition to a war footing. Netanyahu assured mayors of towns in the south that were devastated by the unexpected attack on Saturday that Israel's response would "change the Middle East." Men scaled a pancaked structure in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza to retrieve a baby's little body from the wreckage and carried it through the throng down among the still-smoldering remnants of blasted buildings.

    The health ministry of the territory reports that numerous people were injured and died in that airstrike. About 137,000 individuals, according to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, were seeking refuge with UNRWA, the organization that offers Palestinians basic assistance.

     Warfare increased

     The region was worried by the possibility that fighting would spread to neighboring locations. According to the IDF, Israeli troops "killed a number of armed suspects that infiltrated into Israeli territory from Lebanese territory," and helicopters "are currently striking in the area." Hezbollah, an armed group in Lebanon, responded to Israeli bombing of Lebanon on Monday by launching a barrage of rockets towards northern Israel. At least three of its members had been killed.

    Israel's chief military spokesman claimed that troops had retaken control of overrun communities inside Israel in the southern region of the country, where Hamas attacked. However, sporadic battles persisted as some militants remained active. The horrific pictures showed hundreds of Israelis' bodies strewn across town streets, shot dead at an open-air dance party, and kidnapped from their homes. These scenes had never been witnessed before in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian war. The news that 300,000 reservists had been called up in just two days fueled rumors that Israel might be planning a ground invasion of Gaza, a territory it gave up almost twenty years ago. "This is the largest reservist draft we have ever done," chief military spokesperson Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari stated. "We are going on the offensive."

    A complete slaughter

     Despite the fact that a peace process has been on hold for almost ten years and that far-right Israeli politicians have discussed permanently annexing Palestinian land, mainstream Palestinian organizations who condemned the attacks maintained that the violence was still inevitable. Nothing expressed by Western nations or Israel could justify the deliberate mass murder of civilians. At the desert dance party, the terrorists shot and killed a large number of young Israelis; according to the media, 260 people were slain. Dozens of people were still coming out of hiding a day later. Cars that had been abandoned or wrecked were all over the place. Arik Nani, who had been celebrating his 26th birthday, described the event as "just a massacre, a total massacre." He managed to flee by spending hours hidden in a field.

    Israeli security personnel reportedly called and left audio messages on Palestinian cell phones, advising the population to evacuate the northern and eastern regions of Gaza and informing them that the army would be conducting operations in those areas. The terrorist group Hamas, which demands the destruction of Israel, claims that their strike was warranted due to Gaza's suffering from a 16-year blockade and the worst Israeli crackdown in the occupied West Bank in years.

    With the air still hazy from the explosion, footage from Gaza that Reuters was able to collect showed hundreds of Palestinians scrambling over destroyed buildings in search of survivors. As rescue crews extinguished burning autos, sirens went off. Egyptian security sources claim that Egypt, which has mediated disputes between Israel and Hamas in the past, was in close communication with both parties. Additionally, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declared that his nation was prepared to act as a mediator.

    According to a source who spoke to Reuters, Qatari mediators have made urgent calls to Hamas officials in an attempt to broker the release of 36 Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons in exchange for the negotiation of freedom for Israeli women and children who were kidnapped by the militant organization and imprisoned in Gaza.

    According to an Israeli official, no talks were taking place.

      The bloodshed puts at risk U.S.-backed efforts to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, a security realignment that would have endangered Palestinian aspirations for self-determination and confined Hamas's supporter, Iran. Given that this was the nation's worst intelligence failure in fifty years, Israel's military is under intense scrutiny. Netanyahu's options might also be limited by worries over what will happen to the Israeli hostages.

 

source: the Jakarta Post