Israel was launching ‘an extensive attack’ on the Gaza Strip overnight on Wednesday, the country’s Air Force confirmed – hours after the Defense Minister vowed to ‘wipe Hamas off the face of the earth’.
Over the last five days, Israeli warplanes have pummeled the blockaded strip with an intensity that its war-weary residents had never experienced.
The Israeli Air Force shared footage of a building in Gaza which they said belonged to Hamas being destroyed from the air.
They insist that they are attacking Hamas targets in the enclave, and are trying to avoid civilian casualties: critics say that is impossible in the densely-populated territory.
In the early hours of Thursday, the Air Force tweeted: ‘The IDF is now launching an extensive attack on many centers of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip.’
An IDF soldier covers his ears on Wednesday as a shell is fired towards Gaza
An Israeli army flare illuminates the sky above the northern Gaza Strip on Friday
A senior Air Force officer, Brig. Gen. Omer Tishler, said on Wednesday the strikes were on an ‘unprecedented scale’.
He said Israel has focused its efforts on targeting Hamas officials, and stopping them from ever attacking Israel again.
Hamas launched volleys of rockets as its onslaught began Saturday and has continued to fire rockets into Israeli cities over the past five days, including at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The violence has killed 1,200 Israelis – many of them at a music festival, or living in small farming and artistic communities near the Gaza Strop.
Tishler, the Israel Air Force’s chief of staff, said: ‘There is an enemy here firing rockets, raiding a civilian population. We will never allow that again.’
Terror groups have fired more than 5,000 rockets at Israel since Saturday, the IDF said.
Tishler said the IAF was not targeting civilians in the Gaza Strip, but that the strikes were no longer ‘surgical.’
‘We do not act like the other side, we do not attack the civilian population. Behind every attack there is a target,’ he said.
‘We act precisely and professionally but not surgically. I’m not talking about single, tens, or hundreds [of strikes]. We are talking about thousands of munitions.’
The IDF has carried out strikes against at least 2,687 targets across the Gaza Strip since Saturday, according to military data from Wednesday morning obtained by The Times of Israel.
In just one hour overnight on Tuesday, 250 strikes were launched.
Almost half of the strikes – 1,329 – were aimed at multi-story buildings containing Hamas assets, including war rooms where the terror group manages the fighting against Israel, the paper reported.
Rockets fired from Gaza City (R) being intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence missile system (L) on Tuesday
Smoke billows during Israeli strikes on Gaza City on Tuesday
Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the IDF, is seen in the early hours of Thursday giving an update
Palestinian militants fire rockets towards Israel from Rafah, southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday
Israeli Iron Dome intercepts missiles launched from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night
Israel has continued to pound the Gaza Strip, with residents of the enclave facing ever-growing uncertainty after the territory’s only power plant was shut down. Pictured: Smoke rises from buildings in Gaza following an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday
Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip on, 11 October. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 5,000 injured, according to the Ministry of Health
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Rockets are fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, October 11, 2023
A convoy of Israel Defense Forces soldiers drives along a road near the outskirts of Netivot and near an Artillery position on October 11, 2023 in Netivot, Israel
An Israeli army self-propelled howitzer fires rounds near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on October 11, 2023
Israel Defense Forces reservists pose while lying on a tank near the border with Gaza on October 11, 2023 in Be’eri, Israel
The Gaza City district of at-Tuffah, described as a ‘nest’ of terrorists, has been repeatedly targeted, as has the Beit Hanoun district in the northern Gaza Strip.
Dozens of fighter jets carried out the strikes against the targets in the north – among them two bank branches used by Hamas, an underground tunnel, several war rooms and other military installations, the IDF said.
The onslaught is widely seen as paving the way for a ground invasion.
An Egyptian official told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that Cairo has been informed by Israel that it is readying for a months-long ground campaign in Gaza.
Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the IDF, said in the early hours of Thursday that there were 300,000 troops on the border with Gaza, ‘making preparations for the next stage’.
The 300,000 included regular forces and reservists: Israel has mobilized its largest contingent of reservists in its history.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Defense Minister, declared on Wednesday night that the country was determined to ‘wipe Hamas off the face of the earth.’
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, vowed in the same press conference to ‘crush and destroy’ Hamas.
‘Every Hamas member is a dead man,’ he said in a televised address.
Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel will ‘crush and destroy’ Hamas and that every member of the terrorist organisation is a ‘dead man’
Displaced Palestinians are pictured on Wednesday following intensive Israeli raids in the al-Karama district in northwest Gaza
A boy walks past buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Wednesday
This graphic (above) shows how the horrifying Hamas massacre on the Kfar Aza kibbutz unfolded
Toppling Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, would likely require reoccupying Gaza, at least temporarily.
Even then, Hamas has a long history of operating as an underground insurgency in areas controlled by Israel.
The situation in Gaza has long been dire, but the response from Israel to Hamas’ attacks have only worsened the conditions.
There is no clean water, and no power: the territory’s only power plant ran out of fuel Wednesday, leaving only generators which will not last long. Aid agencies are calling for civilians to be allowed to leave, and are warning of a dire humanitarian situation.
Israel on Monday halted the entry of food, water, fuel and medicine into the territory.
The sole remaining crossing from Egypt was shut down Tuesday after airstrikes hit nearby.
The risk of the war spreading was evident on Wednesday after the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli military position and claimed to have killed and wounded troops.
The Israeli military confirmed the attack but did not comment on possible casualties.
The Israeli army shelled the area in southern Lebanon where the attack was launched.
Joe Biden called Saturday’s Hamas attack ‘the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.’
U.S. President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, makes remarks after speaking by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
‘This attack was a campaign of pure cruelty, not just hate, but pure cruelty against the Jewish people,’ Biden said at a meeting with Jewish community leaders at the White House.
On Tuesday, he warned other countries and armed groups against entering the war.
The U.S. is already rushing munitions and military equipment to Israel and has deployed a carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean as deterrence.
At least 22 Americans are among the dead, and several are believed to be among 150 missing, who are potentially being held as hostages.
Hamas has threatened to execute them publicly if Israel continues striking Gaza.
Biden said that he had one word for any country considering taking advantage of the chaos: ‘Don’t.’
He has vowed that America stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.
The country is facing turmoil on all sides.
In the West Bank on Wednesday, Israeli settlers attacked a village south of Nablus, opening fire on Palestinians and killing three, the territory’s health ministry said.
More than two dozen Palestinians have died in fighting in the West Bank since the weekend.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk