Israel vowed Thursday not to stop its relentless siege of the Gaza Strip for aid or evacuations until every one of its hostages is freed, as the head of the Israel Defense Forces pledged to dismantle Hamas and insisted in which the Palestinian enclave “will never look the best.” same.”
The Israeli military said it had already dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza since the weekend, fulfilling its promise to annihilate Hamas in retaliation for the deadliest attack on civilians in Israel’s history.
“We will attack them, we will dismantle them, we will dismantle their system,” IDF chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said of Hamas on Thursday in his first statements since the war broke out.
“Gaza will no longer look the same.”
However, as the Israeli military continued to pulverize the Hamas-ruled region with airstrikes and prepare for a possible ground invasion, the military chief admitted that the army had failed to thwart the shocking attack.
“The IDF is responsible for defending the country and its citizens, and on Saturday morning, in the area around Gaza, we fell short,” Halevi said, adding that lessons would be drawn from the security failures around Gaza. that allowed the horror to develop.
The Israeli military said Thursday that it had already dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza since the weekend. CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Shutterstock Smoke billows from buildings during Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City on Thursday. ZUMAPRESS.com
“We will learn, we will investigate, but now is the time for war.”
As the war entered its sixth day, the death toll surpassed 2,700, according to officials on both sides.
More than 1,300 Israelis have been confirmed dead, including most who were shot dead in their homes, on the streets or at a party in the desert. About 150 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage back in Gaza, officials said.
Gaza authorities said more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed so far after Israel subjected the besieged enclave to the most powerful bombing campaign in the 75-year history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The morgue at Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, overflowed on Thursday as bodies arrived faster than relatives could collect them.APAImages/Shutterstock People stand next to the bodies of victims of Israeli airstrikes outside the morgue of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.APAImages/Shutterstock
Even as international aid groups warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis after Israel halted deliveries of food, water, fuel and electricity to Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that there would be no exceptions to the siege without freedom for his hostages.
“Not a single electrical switch will be activated, not a single tap will be turned on, and not a single fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages return home,” Katz said on social media.
As the death toll continued to rise, the morgue at Gaza’s largest hospital overflowed on Thursday when bodies arrived faster than relatives could claim them.
Workers at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital had to stack bodies three levels outside the cold room and place dozens more side by side in the parking lot.
“The body bags started and they kept coming and coming and now it’s a cemetery,” Abu Elias Shobaki, a Shifa nurse, said of the parking lot. “I am emotionally and physically exhausted. I just have to stop thinking about how much worse the situation is going to get.”
Smoke rises over buildings during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City.Sameh Rahmi/NurPhoto/Shutterstock People inspect buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Shutterstock
Nearly a week after Hamas terrorists crossed the Israeli border and began killing innocent civilians in a bloody massacre, Israel was preparing for a possible ground invasion of Gaza, its first in nearly a decade.
A ground offensive would likely only further increase the Palestinian death toll.
Meanwhile, in the biggest sign yet that the conflict could spread across borders, Syria said Israeli airstrikes had hit airports in two Syrian cities, Damascus and Aleppo, on Thursday, knocking both out of service.
The Israeli military said it does not comment on such reports. Syria is a close ally of Iran, which sponsors Hamas and has welcomed the attacks although it denies a direct role.
Lebanon’s interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his country would lodge an urgent protest against Israel at the United Nations Security Council after Israel and the powerful Hezbollah armed group began exchanging fire across the Lebanese border.
The Israeli army, which has begun to entrench itself along its northern border, said it responded with artillery fire to the launches coming from Lebanese territory.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn