2023-10-12 17:44:00
Netanyahu tells Blinken that Hamas is like ISIS and that Israel will destroy it
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The Israeli Army accelerated this Thursday preparations for a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip once morest the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas for their attacks, while the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, arrived in the region to meet with Palestinian and Israeli authorities and underlined his country’s support for Israel.
After receiving Blinken in Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hamas was the same as the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) and that Israel will destroy it, amid more Israeli bombings once morest the Gaza Strip and more rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel.
On the sixth day of hostilities and with more than 2,600 dead on both sides, Israeli Army spokesman Lieutenant General Richard Hecht told reporters that the country’s armed forces “they are preparing for a ground maneuver, if it were decided”, in the Gaza Strip with the aim of “liquidating” Hamas.
The Israeli military also said in a separate statement that Hamas and other Islamist groups were launching a relatively low number of between 200 and 400 rockets per day toward Israel and that this seemed to indicate that they were preparing for “a very long fight”.
Last Saturday, hundreds of Hamas militants infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip as the group fired thousands of rockets. The militants murdered hundreds of civilians in their homes, in the streets and at an open-air electronic music party. They also took regarding 150 hostages and are holding them in Gaza.
From land, sea and air, hundreds of Hamas militiamen attacked Israel on Saturday coinciding with the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot / Photo: AFP.
Israel vowed to “destroy” the Palestinian movement, and has since launched bombings in the Gaza Strip that have devastated entire neighborhoodskilled hundreds of people and forced 360,000 more to leave their homes and seek refuge elsewhere.
The territory’s only power plant stopped on Wednesday due to lack of fuel, so There is no Internet or water, nor do telephone networks work..
In Gaza, Palestinians lined up in front of bakeries and grocery stores following spending the night surrounded by the ruins of neighborhoods reduced to dust and darkened by an almost total blackout, the AFP news agency reported.
In the evening, the Israeli military said it had resumed its bombing raids in Gaza once morest “numerous” Hamas targets.
International humanitarian organizations warned that The death toll in Gaza might rise following Israel stopped the flow of food, water, fuel and electricity and Egypt closed the only remaining access to the small enclave of 2.3 million people due to several Israeli bombings..
No access for humanitarian aid
Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz indicated that his country will not authorize the entry of essential goods or humanitarian aid into Gaza as long as Hamas does not release the hostages.
Netanyahu and Blinken made statements to the press following holding a closed-door meeting / Photo: AFP.
“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switches may be turned on, no taps may be opened, and no fuel trucks may enter until the kidnapped Israelis have returned to their homes.“he declared.
He Israeli army He said that since the Hamas attacks has already dropped “close to 6,000 bombs in the Gaza Stripwith a total weight of 4,000 tons of explosives”, once morest some 3,600 targets, and which hit numerous targets of Hamas and the Islamist group Islamic Jihad, which also participated in the attacks in Israel.
Israel says it seeks to avoid civilian casualties, but the prospect of a ground attack once morest the 40-kilometer-long enclave enclosed by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea raises concerns regarding the humanitarian consequences and the risks of an extension of the conflict.
This Thursday, NATO Defense Ministers, meeting at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, expressed their solidarity with Israel, but urged the Jewish State to “defend itself proportionately once morest these unjustifiable acts of terrorism.”.
US President Joe Biden had already urged Netanyahu to proceed by abiding by “the rules of war.”
His Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, however, specified in Brussels, following the NATO meeting, that Washington had not imposed “any conditions” on the shipment of military material.
“Every member of Hamas is a dead man,” Netanyahu declared in his first formal speech / Photo: AFP.
The material is intended for “professional military personnel, led by professional leaders, and one hopes that they will do the right thing in the continuity of their campaign,” Austin stated.
In Tel Aviv, The blink He once more condemned the murders of hundreds of civilians by Hamas in Israel, for which he expressed his country’s support.
“You may be strong enough to defend yourself,” but As long as the United States exists (…) we will always be at your side“he noted at the joint press conference with Netanyahu.
The US Secretary of State questioned Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, but pointed to the need to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, an idea that has long encountered resistance from the right-wing Netanyahu.
“We know that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people or their legitimate aspirations to live in equal conditions of security, freedom, opportunities for justice and dignity”he claimed.
Blinken will meet this Friday in Jordan with the president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Mahmud Abbas, and with King Abdullah II of Jordan.
A thousand homes destroyed and serious shortages in Gaza due to Israeli attacks, says the UN / Photo: AFP.
The Hamas Health Ministry in Gaza raised 1,417 Palestinians killed and 6,268 injured in the Gaza Strip due to Israeli bombings.
In Israel, Hamas attacks left more than 1,200 dead, according to the Army, although Hebrew-language media today put the death toll at more than 1,300. The figure has been changing as the Army entered attacked communities to quantify victims and damages and the death of seriously injured people.
The Israeli Ministry of Health raised the number of injured to 3,297, of which 28 were in critical condition and 335 in serious condition.
The Israeli Army said that 222 soldiers were killed in the attacks on Saturday and Sunday and in subsequent clashes before Israel retook all the communities attacked on Monday and control of the border with Gaza on Tuesday.
According to the United Nations, more than 338,000 Palestinians had to leave their homes in Gaza due to Israeli attacks / Photo: AFP.
Two Palestinian gunmen were killed by soldiers near the Kissufim kibbutz in southern Israel, near the Gaza Strip, the military said, adding that it was searching the area.
Israel has said there have been no further infiltrations by Palestinian militants this week, but that some may remain hidden inside the territory since the weekend attacks. The Army claimed on Monday to have About 1,500 bodies of Hamas fighters found.
Air raid sirens sounded this Thursday in several cities in northern, central and southern Israel, and several rockets were launched from Gaza, the Army said, without reporting any casualties.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) indicated that it is in contact with Hamas to try to free the hostages.
Fabrizio Carboni, regional director of the ICRC, also called on both sides to “reduce the suffering of civilians.” “Without electricity, hospitals risk becoming morgues,” he warned.
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