Staff correspondent :<\/p>\n
Israeli forces battled holdout Hamas
\nfighters and pounded targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as Prime Minister
\nBenjamin Netanyahu warned of a “long and difficult” war ahead after the
\nPalestinian militants launched a massive surprise attack.<\/p>\n
Gun fights raged in towns and on highways as the Israeli army deployed tens
\nof thousands of forces to secure southern desert regions near the coastal
\nenclave, aiming to rescue Israeli hostages and then evacuate the entire
\nregion within 24 hours.<\/p>\n
“We’ll reach each and every community till we kill every terrorist in
\nIsrael,” vowed military spokesman Daniel Hagari, a day after hundreds of
\nHamas fighters crossed into Israel using vehicles, boats and even motorised
\nparagliders.<\/p>\n
“Our mission for the upcoming 24 hours is to evacuate all residents” from
\nareas around the Gaza Strip, he told journalists amid the fighting that has
\nleft hundreds dead on both sides.<\/p>\n
Israel also came under attack from the north on Sunday when Lebanon’s
\nHezbollah launched guided missiles and artillery shells “in solidarity” with
\nthe unprecedented Hamas offensive, without causing any casualties.<\/p>\n
Israel was shocked when Gaza’s ruling Islamist movement launched their multi-
\npronged shock offensive at dawn Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, with thousands
\nof rockets and ground, air and sea forces, attacking and infiltrating Israeli
\ntowns and kibbutz communities and storming what media reported was an outdoor
\nrave party.<\/p>\n
Panicked Israelis phoned media outlets as they hid out in their homes from
\nmilitants going door to door and shooting civilians or dragging them away.<\/p>\n
The worst fighting in decades has killed more than 200 Israelis and wounded
\nover 1,000, leaving bodies of civilians strewn on roads, while on the Gaza
\nside at least 313 have died and over 1,700 were reported wounded.<\/p>\n
An unknown number of Israelis were abducted as hostages, sparking dismay in
\nIsrael and massively complicating its military retaliation campaign.<\/p>\n
According to Israeli news website Ynet, “dozens of Israeli captives,
\nincluding numerous women, children and elders, are believed to have been
\ntaken into the Gaza Strip”.<\/p>\n
Two Thai nationals were among those killed, and other Asian nationals,
\nthousands of whom work as farm labourers in the region, were believed to be
\namong the hostages.<\/p>\n
Gun battles raged Sunday between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters in
\nmultiple locations, including at a police station in Sderot where special
\nforces “neutralised 10 armed terrorists”, police said.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people have been killed,” said army spokesman, Richard Hecht, after
\nthe military released the names of 26 fallen soldiers. “We lost soldiers,
\nlost commanders and lost a lot of civilians.<\/p>\n
“We are completing efforts to retake full control of Israeli territory from
\nHamas,” he added, reporting that the army had struck 426 Hamas targets
\nincluding Gaza tunnels, buildings and other infrastructure.<\/p>\n
– ‘No respite’ –<\/p>\n
Global concern has mounted, with Western capitals condemning the attack by
\nHamas, which Washington and Brussels consider a terrorist group.<\/p>\n
Israel’s foes, including Iran and Hezbollah, have praised the assault.<\/p>\n
Anti-Israel protests have flared in some other Muslim countries, and Germany
\nand France were among countries stepping up security around Jewish temples
\nand schools.<\/p>\n
In the Egyptian city of Alexandria a police officer opened fire “at random”
\non Israeli tourists Sunday, killing two of them and their Egyptian guide
\nbefore he was arrested.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu — who leads a hard-right government but has received support from
\npolitical opponents during Israel’s national emergency — has vowed to turn
\nHamas hideouts “to rubble” and urged Palestinians there to flee as air
\nstrikes continued.<\/p>\n
“We are embarking on a long and difficult war that was forced on us by a
\nmurderous Hamas attack,” Netanyahu wrote on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n
“The first stage is ending at this time with the destruction of the vast
\nmajority of the enemy forces that infiltrated our territory,” he added,
\npledging no “respite” until victory.<\/p>\n
US President Joe Biden has voiced “rock solid and unwavering” support for its
\nkey ally Israel and warned “against any other party hostile to Israel seeking
\nadvantage in this situation”.<\/p>\n
But early Sunday Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement joined the fray
\nfrom the north.<\/p>\n
It said it had fired “large numbers of artillery shells and guided missiles”
\nat positions in contested border areas “in solidarity” with Hamas.<\/p>\n
Israel’s army massed tanks in the north after earlier firing artillery on
\nLebanon in response to a shot from the area.<\/p>\n
– ‘Liberate our land’ –<\/p>\n
Hamas has labelled its major attack “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” and called on
\n“resistance fighters in the West Bank” as well as in “Arab and Islamic
\nnations” to join the battle.<\/p>\n
Its attack came half a century after the outbreak of the 1973 Arab-Israeli
\nwar, stunning Israel and sparking bitter recriminations inside the country on
\nwhat was widely seen as an enormous intelligence failure.<\/p>\n
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has predicted “victory” and vowed to press ahead
\nwith “the battle to liberate our land and our prisoners languishing in
\noccupation prisons”.<\/p>\n
Hamas said Saturday it had fired 5,000 rockets, while Israel reported some
\n3,000 incoming projectiles. Several bypassed the Iron Dome missile defence
\nsystem and smashed into buildings as far as Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n
Under the cover of the rocket barrage, hundreds of Hamas fighters tore
\nthrough the militarised Gaza border fence and crossed into Israel.<\/p>\n
Israel responded by rushing forces to the embattled south, calling up
\nreservists and hitting Gaza in operation “Swords of Iron”, with some
\nobservers predicting a possible ground invasion of Gaza.<\/p>\n
Israeli attacks have reduced several Gaza residential towers to rubble in
\nwhat Israel said were strikes aimed at Hamas facilities and which had
\nfollowed warning calls for people inside to evacuate.<\/p>\n
Another strike completely destroyed a mosque in Khan Yunis in the southern
\nGaza Strip.<\/p>\n
Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, leading to Israel’s crippling blockade of
\nthe impoverished enclave of 2.3 million people. Israel and Hamas have fought
\nseveral wars since, with the latest in May killing 34 Palestinians and one
\nIsraeli.<\/p>\n
The new war follows months of rising violence in the occupied West Bank and
\ntensions around Gaza’s border and at contested holy sites in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Before Saturday, the conflict had killed at least 247 Palestinians, 32
\nIsraelis and two foreigners, including combatants and civilians, this year,
\naccording to Israeli and Palestinian officials.<\/p>\n
Violence flared again in the West Bank Saturday, leaving at least seven
\nPalestinians dead, said the health ministry in Ramallah.<\/p>\n
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged “all diplomatic efforts to avoid
\na wider conflagration” and stressed that “only through negotiation leading to
\na two-state solution can peace be achieved”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Staff correspondent : Israeli forces battled holdout Hamas fighters and pounded targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a “long and difficult” war ahead after the Palestinian militants launched a massive surprise attack. Gun fights raged in towns and on highways as the Israeli army deployed tens of thousands of forces to secure southern desert regions near the coastal enclave, aiming to rescue Israeli hostages and then evacuate the entire region within 24 hours. “We’ll reach each and every community till we kill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3360,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3359\/revisions\/3360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}