The Israeli military launched a “complete siege” of Gaza on Monday, blockading the area and bombarding it with air strikes in an attempt to destroy Hamas after the terrorist group launched the worst attack on Israel in 50 years over the weekend.
Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered the “complete siege” of Gaza in a televised address, announcing that Gaza will be cut off from food, electricity, and water for the foreseeable future.
“We are fighting barbarians and will respond accordingly,” Gallant said.
The #Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said “we are fighting human animals”, referring to Palestinians, and vowed to “act accordingly”.
He announced a “complete siege” of the #Gaza Strip, saying there will be “no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed” pic.twitter.com/SFY7DcxkWc
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 9, 2023
The Israeli Air Force, meanwhile, began bombarding targets throughout Gaza after Hamas launched a massive rocket attack on Israeli territory.
“The Air Force is now launching an extensive attack on many centers of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip,” the branch wrote on X.
“Even at this time, the Air Force continues to attack dozens of targets of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip,” the air force added.
The IDF has retaken control of all towns on the Gaza border, but ground forces are still combatting scattered Hamas terrorists, chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari said Monday.
Israel has called up a record 300,000 reservists to serve in the fight, which has so far stopped short of a full ground incursion into Gaza. Israel’s El Al Airlines said Monday that it will fly reservists back to Israel to fight Hamas, Reuters reported.
Israel appears to be deliberating how to escalate retaliation in order to neutralize if not eliminate the enemy. Some former military leaders have been urging Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to put boots on the ground in Gaza.
“I don’t see any way the Israeli government will be able to avoid some kind of ground operation,” Itamar Yaar, former deputy head of the Israeli National Security Council told the Financial Times. “How big, where, what the timing is, I don’t know. But I don’t see a situation where we can do everything from the air, It will have to be a combination of ground, air and sea.”
Amir Avivi, former deputy commander of the Gaza Division of Israel’s military said an invasion of Gaza is the only way for Israel to have an effective deterrence strategy for the foreseeable future.
“We need to conquer Gaza, or at least most of it, and destroy Hamas,” he told the publication. “We cannot continue to do the things that we did before that are not working.”
Hamas terrorists poured across the Gaza border early Saturday, killing nearly 700 Israelis, including women and children, and torturing and raping civilians in the streets. Videos posted to social media also showed the terrorists parading dead bodies in the streets. Hamas launched the attack on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur attack, which this year occurred on a sabbath and during the last two days of the Sukkot festival, Jewish holy days.
As part of the surprise assault, Hamas encircled a desert music festival by the Gaza border and sprayed hundreds of Israeli youth with bullets. Israel’s search and rescue team later recovered 260 bodies from the site.
In its murderous rampage, Hamas captured dozens of Israelis and took them back to Gaza. A Hamas spokesperson claimed Monday that it was holding over 100 Israeli hostages in Gaza, including high-ranking military leaders. Hamas said Saturday that many of the captives were being held in its underground web of terror tunnels, the Times of Israel reported.
Nine U.S. citizens have died in Hamas’s onslaught, a National Security Council spokesperson confirmed in a statement Monday. American hostages were also taken, Israel Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer told CNN Sunday. Other foreign nationals including two Ukrainians, ten Nepali citizens, one French citizen, and one British citizen have been killed so far, CNN reported.
A spokesman for Hamas confirmed to the BBC Sunday that the terrorist group received aid from Iran. U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday that the U.S. does not yet have “direct information” connecting Iran to the Hamas assault. However, he said Iran was almost undoubtedly “broadly complicit” in the attacks, noting the regime’s history of bankrolling and supporting Hamas. The Biden administration has been hit with accusations that its unfreezing of $6 billion worth of Iranian assets in early August in exchange for five imprisoned Americans could have helped finance Hamas’ weaponry and war preparation.