Israel is drawing on its vast military might – including thousands of tanks, fighter jets and troops – to wipe out Hamas after the terrorists launched a surprise attack that has killed 700 Israelis so far.
Israeli forces have already deployed their fleet of 600 aircraft and 300 rocket launchers to relentlessly attack the Gaza Strip, with airstrikes and artillery destroying 1,000 Hamas targets.
And the destruction doesn’t stop there: Israel’s 173,000 soldiers, including 8,000 of its feared elite commandos, are vying for the chance to kill Hamas terrorists, who have killed more than 700 Israelis so far.
They are now preparing to launch a massive coordinated ground attack within the “next 48 hours” to destroy Hamas militants and infrastructure in Gaza, leading to heavy fighting in the streets.
Ground forces are drawing on Israel’s arsenal of 300 military tanks, including self-propelled howitzers, to search the country’s southern and northern borders for Hamas gunmen and guard gaps along the border.
Israel’s military power is far superior to that of Hamas terrorists, who currently only have around 10,000 secretly built rockets.
In addition to Israel’s 173,000 active-duty troops, Israel today called up a record 300,000 reservists in response to a multi-front attack by Hamas from Gaza and is “going on the offensive,” its top military spokesman said.
Israel is drawing on its vast military might – including thousands of tanks, fighter jets and troops – to wipe out Hamas after the terrorists launched a surprise attack that has killed 700 Israelis so far
Israeli self-propelled howitzers were positioned on Monday at an undisclosed location in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon
Ground forces are drawing on Israel’s arsenal of 300 military tanks, including self-propelled howitzers, to search the country’s southern and northern borders for Hamas gunmen and guard gaps along the border
Israeli soldiers scan an area as sirens sound as rockets are fired from Gaza towards Israel near Sderot in southern Israel on Monday
A cloud of smoke rises in the sky of Gaza City during an Israeli airstrike on Friday
Israeli airstrikes destroyed buildings and cars in al-Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Monday
Israel also relies on its special forces from the notorious elite Sayeret Matkal unit to fight against Hamas. It is believed that their goal will be to eliminate the terrorist organization’s senior fighters and also to free the hundreds of Israelis who have been taken hostage.
The Israel Defense Forces have said they want to completely strip Hamas of its power to rule Palestine after the “worst day in the country’s history” in which the number of Israelis killed in the conflict is expected to continue to rise.
Israeli air strikes have so far leveled large parts of the city of Beit Hanoun in the northeastern corner of the Palestinian enclave, which Hamas terrorists had used as a staging area for their attacks.
In a statement, the Israeli Air Force said it had dropped around 2,000 munitions and more than 1,000 ton bombs on Gaza in the last 20 hours, targeting over 10,000 targets in Gaza.
The targets included three rocket launchers aimed at Israel, a mosque where militants operated and 21 high-rise buildings used for militant activity.
Now Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said authorities would cut off power to Gaza and block imports of food and fuel, saying his troops were “fighting barbarically.” [terrorists] and will respond accordingly’.
The measures will essentially create siege-like conditions that will cause the millions of Palestinians living in the tiny, fenced-off region to begin starving as they come under aerial attack.
The announcement came as Israeli soldiers, assisted by helicopters, killed at least two gunmen crossing the northern border from Lebanon today. This is a sign of a possible new front opening as Israeli forces continue to fight Hamas terrorists in the south.
Artillery shelling and gunfire were heard on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, a local journalist said.
Earlier, the Israeli army said its forces were in “full control of communities” in its southern territory near the Gaza Strip – hours after it said it was fighting Hamas terrorists in “seven to eight” locations in the south.
“We have full control over the communities,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters.
But he said fighting was still raging in places inside Israel where militants were still holed up after killing 700 Israelis and taking dozens of hostages in a raid that shattered Israel’s reputation for invincibility.
“We are now conducting searches in all communities and clearing the area,” he said in a televised news conference.
Military officials had previously said their focus was on securing the Israeli side of the border ahead of a major escalation of the counteroffensive in Gaza.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu officially declared war on Sunday and vowed to “completely destroy the military and governance capabilities” of Hamas, which has deep roots in the Gaza Strip and has ruled unchallenged since 2007.
Hagari said 300,000 reservists had been called up by the military since Saturday, suggesting major fighting and a possible ground attack on Gaza were imminent.
“We have never drafted so many reservists on this scale,” he said. “We’re going on the offensive.”
Israeli army artillery units deployed toward Gaza near the border with Palestinian territory in southern Israel on Monday
Israeli army artillery deployed towards Gaza near the border with Palestinian territory on Monday
A medic holds a little girl whose face is covered in blood and dirt from the effects of Israeli planes bombing Gaza on Monday
A medic holds a crying little girl after she was rescued from the scene of the Gaza bombing on Monday
A rocket exploded in Gaza City during an Israeli airstrike on Sunday evening
Palestinians evacuate a body after an Israeli airstrike on the Sousi Mosque in Gaza City on Monday
Smoke rises after Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Monday
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said he believed about 1,000 Palestinian gunmen were involved in Sunday’s unprecedented attack on Israel, which he called “by far the worst day in Israeli history.”
“Never before have so many Israelis been killed by a single thing, let alone enemy activity, in one day,” he said, adding that the death toll, currently at 700, is expected to rise as more than 1,000 Israelis were injured, some critically.
Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at Hamas on Saturday, sending a wave of militants who cold-bloodedly shot hundreds of civilians and took at least 100 hostage in a huge coordinated attack that took Israel by surprise.
The shocking images of the bodies of hundreds of Israeli civilians lying on city streets, shot at an open-air disco and kidnapped from their homes were unlike anything seen before in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The terrorists massacred 260 Israeli revelers at a festival in a hail of bullets. Survivors described how the gunmen went “tree by tree” and executed victims.
Survivors of the attack posted clips of the ordeal on social media, showing how they were forced to hide under bushes and record muffled farewell messages to their loved ones as they watched the victims being killed one by one.
Many lay silent and afraid for more than five hours before hearing the sounds of armed rescuers speaking in Hebrew.
The Palestinian terrorist group stormed the Supernova festival held near Kibbutz Re’im near the Gaza Strip as part of its surprise attack launched on Saturday.
The slaughter of those 260 people at the music festival and the killing of hundreds more in the rocket attacks has led Israel to launch a series of revenge attacks – with Israeli officials saying they would not stop until they had stripped Hamas of its power.
Israel has already responded with its heaviest-ever bombardment of the Gaza Strip, killing about 500 people so far, and could consider an unprecedented ground attack on the territory it abandoned nearly two decades ago.
Hamas says the attack was justified by Gaza’s plight under a 16-year blockade, an Israeli crackdown in the occupied West Bank that has been the deadliest in years and a far-right Israeli government that talks about annexing Palestinian land. Israel and Western countries say nothing justifies the deliberate mass killing of civilians.
Hamas militants continued to infiltrate Israel from Gaza, the military said, adding that between 70 and 100 gunmen had been killed in the Beeri area since Saturday.
Warplanes, helicopters and artillery attacked more than 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip overnight, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad command centers and the residence of a senior Hamas official, Ruhi Mashtaa.
“The price the Gaza Strip will pay will be very high and will change the reality for generations,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in Ofakim, one of the towns where after a battle with Hamas militants who stormed through the Gaza Strip. peace had returned. Kill civilians and leave with hostages.
Palestinians inspect damage after Israeli attacks following a surprise attack by Hamas at the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City, October 9, 2023
People stand among the rubble of a destroyed mosque during Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on October 9, 2023
Covered bodies of dead Palestinians lie on the ground at Al-Shifa Hospital after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 9, 2023
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ability to attack Hamas, which controls the narrow Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, could be limited by concerns about the many Israelis captured in the crackdown. A full-scale invasion of Gaza, which Netanyahu has tried to avoid during his long years in power, could endanger the lives of the hostages.
The Israeli military, facing sharp questions over the country’s worst intelligence failure in 50 years, said it had regained control of most infiltration points along security barriers, killing hundreds of attackers and capturing dozens more.
Tens of thousands of soldiers are currently stationed in the Gaza Strip and the military is evacuating Israelis at the border.
Israel has not released an official figure, but its media said at least 700 people, including children, were killed in Saturday’s attacks. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari called it “the worst massacre of innocent civilians in Israel’s history.” Netanyahu has vowed revenge.
Palestinian fighters took dozens of hostages into Gaza, including soldiers and civilians, children and the elderly. A second Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, said it was holding more than 30 of the prisoners.
Scores of young people were killed in a bloodbath at an outdoor dance party that was attacked by gunmen before dawn on Saturday. About 30 Israelis who were still missing emerged from hiding on Sunday.
“The cruel reality is that Hamas took hostages to insure itself against Israeli retaliation, particularly a massive ground attack, and exchanged them for Palestinian prisoners,” said Aaron David Miller, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he sent the USS Gerald R. Ford’s Carrier Strike Group to the eastern Mediterranean as a sign of support for Israel. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem condemned the US announcement as “actual participation in the aggression against our people.”