Israel continues its response to the attack carried out by Hamas this Saturday. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, while the Army has reinforced its border with Lebanon and called up 300,000 reservists.
“I have given an order: Gaza will be under a total closure. We are fighting animals and we will respond accordingly,” said Minister Yoav Gallant, according to a statement from his office collected by AFP. “There will be no electricity, food or fuel” supplied from Israel, the Defense Minister stressed.
Israel declared a state of war on Saturday, after Hamas launched an unprecedented multiple attack by land, sea and air. The launch of thousands of rockets and ground incursions by Palestinian Islamist militiamen caused hundreds of deaths and injuries and the taking of an unknown number of hostages. A figure that the Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, has placed above one hundred before a group of foreign journalists.
In the early hours of Sunday to Monday, Israel responded with heavy and constant bombing that would have targeted 500 targets related to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.
In a televised appearance, General and Army spokesman Daniel Hagari reported that Israeli forces have not yet been able to eliminate all the terrorists who infiltrated their territory on Saturday and assured that 300,000 reservists have been called to immediately join the forces. rows.
The deaths in Israel now amount to more than 800, while those in the Gaza Strip total 687, including 140 children, according to data updated on Monday afternoon. The Israeli Ministry of Health has confirmed that the injured number 2,506, including 376 in serious condition. In Gaza, the injured number 3,726, according to the latest count from its Ministry of Health. A spokesman for the Hamas government in Gaza has accused Israel of bombing residential buildings without warning.
Hamas has announced another step in the spiral of violence. The Islamist group has publicly threatened to kill an Israeli civilian, whom it has taken hostage, for each unannounced bombing of civilian buildings. Dozens of the kidnapped people would have dual nationality, of Israel and a second country.
This Monday, Hamas projectiles reached the outskirts of Jerusalem, causing seven injuries, three of them seriously. According to initial information, the latter are a 60-year-old woman and a 10-year-old boy in Beitar Illit, an Israeli settlement a dozen kilometers southwest of Jerusalem; and a 20-year-old man in Abu Gosh, a municipality located about 10 kilometers northwest of Jerusalem.
There is no final moment for the spiral of violence. A senior Hamas official told Al Jazeera that the Islamist group would be open to discussions about a possible truce with Israel, having “achieved its objectives.” Without giving further details, Moussa Abu Marzouk said Hamas was open to “something like that” and “all political dialogues” when asked if the Islamist group is willing to discuss a possible ceasefire.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has assured elected officials in the south of the country that the war that Israel is waging against the Islamist organization Hamas in Gaza “is going to change the Middle East” and that the current bombings are just the beginning. of a much longer process.
“I know you have experienced terrible moments. What Hamas will experience will be hard and terrible. We are already in the middle of the battle and we have only just begun,” Netanyahu said in a meeting with Israeli politicians from the southern regions, the most affected by the attack. launched from Gaza last Saturday.
“The nation will do everything in its power to help you. I ask you to be strong, because we are going to change the Middle East,” said the prime minister, according to a statement from his office cited by the Israeli press.
In the afternoon, Netanyahu assured that the bombings on Gaza are just the beginning and has invited opposition forces to join a broad coalition government. The prime minister has promised to work hard to free those kidnapped and has accused Hamas of killing handcuffed children.
Furthermore, on this third day of the war between Israel and the fundamentalist group Hamas, the Israeli Army has detected the infiltration of a commando from Lebanon. Israeli soldiers managed to locate and shoot down, with the help of the Air Force, the five members of the commando after a brief exchange of fire. Shortly before, Israel had activated alerts regarding a possible infiltration from southern Lebanon.
The Israeli Army had reinforced its presence on the Lebanese border after failures in the defensive line in front of the Gaza Strip. The first sign of increased tension on Israel’s northern border was seen on Sunday, when the Lebanese Hezbollah militia fired several projectiles at Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms, in the border triangle with Syria and Lebanon.
The Israeli military’s response was also limited, in a mutual attempt to avoid a full-scale clash. In any case, and learning the lesson from what happened in the south, Israel has already immediately sent more reinforcement troops to the border with Lebanon.
This Monday’s infiltration, however, has been attributed to another group, the Islamic Jihad, which claims to have injured seven Israeli soldiers, at least one of them seriously. It is estimated that almost half a million Palestinians are settled in Lebanon.
Israel has responded with the bombing of various points in Lebanese territory near the Blue Line, the de facto dividing line between both countries, and Hezbollah has acknowledged the death of two of its militiamen in these attacks. In this chain of action and reaction, the Shiite militia once again fired projectiles against northern Israel on Monday afternoon.