Israel vowed to accelerate long-range artillery fire and airstrikes against Hamas targets in Gaza on Saturday, as its tanks massed on the enclave’s border ahead of an expected ground offensive.
“We have to enter the next phase of the war in the best conditions, not according to what we are told,” IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters.
“Starting today, we will increase attacks and minimize the danger” to Israeli troops who will soon invade.
“We are going to increase the attacks, starting today,” he promised.
The accelerated pace of long-distance strikes – the usual means of softening resistance before a ground invasion begins – came as the United States and several European allies urged Israel to pause its military operation in hopes of securing the release of 210 hostages, including 30. children, remaining in what will soon be a combat zone.
An Israeli tank formation massed along the Gaza border on Saturday ahead of a planned ground invasion.REUTERS
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly “called for discipline, professionalism and restraint from the Israeli military,” according to the BBC, saying that an expansion of the conflict “is exactly what Hamas wants.”
The US government’s efforts to free remaining American hostages in the Gaza Strip are intensifying ahead of Israel’s expected invasion, the Washington Post reported.
Two American hostages, Judith and Natalie Raanan of Illinois, were freed on Friday.
Palestinians in Gaza City mourned the deaths of their relatives as both Israeli strikes and Hamas rocket fire increased. Anadolu via Getty Images
How celebrities, schools and companies have reacted to the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel
“The hope is that this will be seen as an olive branch,” a US diplomat told NBC News.
“We are optimistic that the hostages, especially the civilians, will be released very soon,” senior Qatari official Majed Al-Ansari told German newspaper Die Welt, adding that the Raanans’ freedom came “within a framework that confirms the positive intention to free the hostages.”
With 10 Americans still among the missing, American negotiators working with mediators in Qatar fear discussions will collapse once the IDF invades.
Israeli soldiers near the Gaza border prepared a tank for the upcoming battle. Getty Images
President Biden said “yes” when asked by reporters Friday night whether the IDF should delay its ground invasion, but the White House attempted to walk back his answer, claiming the 80-year-old president had misheard the question.
But Hamas announced Saturday that it will not discuss the fate of what it called “Israeli army captives” until Israel ends its “aggression,” casting doubt on the prospects for diplomatic efforts.
“Our position regarding the captives of the Israeli army is clear: it is related to a [possible] prisoner exchange, and we will not discuss it until Israel ends its aggression against Gaza and the Palestinians,” Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official, told reporters from Lebanon.
Members of the IDF infantry soldiers patrol near the Gaza fence in the Jewish community of Kibbutz Be’eri, whose residents were attacked by Hamas on October 7. Jim Hollander/UPI/Shutterstock
Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest on Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office claimed that a report that Hamas had offered to release two hostages on Sunday was “propaganda,” the Times of Israel reported.
“We will not respond to Hamas’ propaganda lies,” Netanyahu’s office said of the terrorist group’s hostage claim. “We will continue to do everything possible to return all hostages and missing people home.”
Meanwhile, a 22-year-old American with dual Israeli citizenship was killed on Saturday by an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon, as the Hezbollah terrorist group claimed responsibility for several rocket and missile attacks on military positions and towns in northern Lebanon. Israel.
Sargeant. (res.) Omer Balva, who grew up in Rockville, Maryland, was in the United States when Hamas fighters killed more than 1,000 civilians in a shocking attack on October 7.
He returned to Israel last week when the IDF called up more than 360,000 reservists to report for duty.
The first trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza refugees crossed the border from Egypt early Saturday. AFP via Getty Images
The IDF responded to Hezbollah attacks with drone strikes in southern Lebanon.
The first trucks carrying international aid entered southern Gaza early Saturday as the Rafah crossing into Egypt opened briefly and then closed again as Israeli rocket bombardment continued.
Some 20 trucks carrying food, medical supplies and 44,000 bottles of drinking water arrived to help the approximately 700,000 refugees who have fled the northern section of the enclave.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi greeted the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in Cairo.via REUTERS
The worst attack on Israel in 50 years: how we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after seizing the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: The terrorist group Hamas wins the Palestinian legislative elections.
2007: Hamas takes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches a military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fire rockets at the city of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches largest attack on Israel in 50 years.
More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, more than 4,200 wounded and at least 100 taken hostage, with the death toll expected to rise after Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of militants into Israeli cities. .
Hamas terrorists were seen taking women hostage and parading them down the street in gruesome videos.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced “We are at war” and promised that Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
Gaza health officials report that at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured.
In other parts of the region:
- An IDF raid on the home of a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank resulted in the arrest of at least 20 of his relatives. Saleh al-Aruri is deputy to top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the Times of Israel reported.
- At least 550 rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad terrorist group (about a fifth of the total) failed, killing innocent Palestinian civilians, the IDF said Saturday, releasing thermal images showing four of those failures. Hamas blamed Israel this week for a deadly explosion at a Gaza City hospital caused by an errant terrorist rocket.
- Israeli police have identified 74% of the 1,033 civilians killed in the October 7 Hamas invasion and returned the remains of 668 victims to their families for burial. But progress has been slow and many bodies are badly burned or mutilated.
- The death toll in the war has reached more than 1,400 Israelis and more than 4,300 Palestinians, including 1,756 children, according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry. Israel says the Palestinian death toll includes 1,500 terrorists.
Leaders from more than two dozen countries gathered in Cairo, Egypt, for a day-long summit to discuss ways to “de-escalate” the war.
The Cairo Peace Summit included representatives from countries including Jordan, France, Germany, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Qatar and South Africa, but the delegations left the meeting without issuing a final joint statement due to “ differences.” about the wording of the statement, CNN reported.
Israel, which did not participate, criticized the summit’s failure to denounce Hamas for the Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians.
“It is unfortunate that even when faced with such horrible atrocities, there were some who had difficulty condemning terrorism or recognizing the danger,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said. published in X. “Israel will do what it has to do.”
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, host of the meeting, emphasized that his government will not accept an influx of refugees from Gaza, because doing so would “end the dream of a state.”
“The entire Egyptian people will not accept the liquidation of the Palestinian cause… and it will never happen throughout Egypt,” el-Sissi said.
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