Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his emergency war cabinet on Sunday and vowed to “demolish Hamas” as a ground invasion of the Jewish nation to eradicate the militant group in Gaza loomed.
The Israeli military – supported by a growing show of force from US warships and aircraft in the region – was finishing up positioning along the Gaza border as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sought to obey Israel’s order to evacuate before the planned ground offensive.
“Hamas thought we would be demolished. It is we who will demolish Hamas,” Netanyahu said as he convened for the first time Israel’s expanded emergency cabinet, which includes opposition leaders.
Meanwhile, inside a besieged Gaza, conditions only deteriorated further, with Palestinian health workers forced to store bodies in ice cream trucks as the local death toll rose.
The week-long war has already claimed a total of more than 3,700 lives on both sides.
More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, according to the Israel Defense Forces, while Gaza authorities said more than 2,450 people had been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes. Many of the dead on both sides are children and women, authorities have said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday to “demolish Hamas” as a ground invasion of his country looms to eradicate the terrorist group in neighboring Gaza.POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Sunday that 300 people had been killed and 800 more wounded in Gaza in the past 24 hours alone.
The Israeli military has been urging residents of the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes more than a million residents of Gaza City, for days to move south.
On Sunday, the IDF promised not to attack a specific route south for three hours in a bid to convince Palestinians to leave the north en masse, even though Hamas told locals to ignore Israel’s message.
An injured Palestinian man and child arrive at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City after an Israeli bombardment on Sunday. AFP via Getty Images
“Residents of Gaza City and northern Gaza, in recent days we have urged you to move to the southern area for your safety. We want to inform you that the IDF will not carry out any operations along this route from 10 am to 1 pm,” the army tweeted.
“During this period, take the opportunity to advance south from northern Gaza. Your safety and that of your families matters. Follow our instructions and head south. Please be assured that Hamas leaders have already guaranteed your safety and that of your families.”
But some civilians who had already traveled south said they planned to return north because they were not safe anywhere.
Hussam Abu Safiya, an intensive care doctor at the children’s ward at Kamal Edwan Hospital in northern Gaza, said the evacuation order was almost impossible for the facility.
Gunmen from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, stand in the back of a pickup truck during an anti-Israel military parade in Gaza City.SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
“In this room, as you can see, there are children on ventilators and now they have asked us to evacuate the hospital. Where should we evacuate these children? he said.
Hamas on Sunday continued to respond to Israel’s continued bombing elsewhere with its own rockets.
At one point, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his delegation were forced to seek shelter in Tel Aviv to wait out rockets launched by Hamas.
The week-long war has already claimed a total of more than 3,700 lives on both sides. REUTERS
“While in Tel Aviv today, our delegation was rushed to a shelter to wait for the rockets sent by Hamas to pass. Shows what Israelis have to go through,” Schumer tweeted. “We must provide Israel with the support it needs to defend itself.”
The developments came as additional US attack aircraft arrived in the Middle East on Sunday, US Air Combat Command revealed, days after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pledged additional support.
“This arrival strengthens the United States’ defense posture, enhances air operations throughout the Middle East, and assures our regional allies and partners that we remain committed to protecting and defending their freedom,” reads a statement on social media. .
Palestinians react to damage caused by an Israeli military strike on the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday. AFP via Getty Images
Fresh clashes on Israel’s border with Lebanon on Sunday also stoked fears that the conflict could spread.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, said it fired 20 rockets from Lebanon at two Israeli settlements, while the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said it attacked barracks in Israel’s Hanita with missiles, killing one civilian. .
Israel said it had returned fire on Lebanon in retaliation.
President Biden has criticized Hamas for carrying out the “worst massacres of the Jewish people since the Holocaust” while putting the lives of his own Palestinian people at risk.
“More than 1,300 innocent lives have been lost in Israel, including at least 27 Americans. Children and grandparents kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas,” Biden said during a speech Saturday at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner.
“The humanitarian crisis in Gaza: innocent Palestinian families (and the vast majority have nothing to do with Hamas) are being used as human shields.”
With postal cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn