Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night declared that Israel will take ‘mighty vengeance for this black day’ as warplanes launched a retaliatory strikes against Hamas.
Airstrikes yesterday flattened several buildings in the centre of Gaza City, including an 11-storey building called Palestine Tower which houses Hamas radio stations on its rooftop.
Seventeen Hamas compounds were also hit as dozens of fighter jets launched strikes against the terror group.
Israel’s military has mobilised tens of thousands of reservists and is now expected to launch a huge ground operation in Gaza.
The country’s energy and infrastructure minister Israel Katz said Israel will cut off its electricity supply to the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night declared that Israel will take ‘mighty vengeance for this black day’ as warplanes launched a retaliatory strikes against Hamas
Smoke and flames billow after Israeli forces struck a high-rise tower in Gaza City, October 7
‘I have signed an order instructing Israel’s electric company to stop the electricity supply to Gaza,’ Mr Katz said in a statement.
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, last night told reporters fighting is still going on at 22 locations on Israeli territory after Hamas terrorists attacked early on Saturday.
He said a ‘severe hostage situation’ was ongoing at Be’eri, a kibbutz in southern Israel, and the nearby town of Ofakim, where Hamas fighters are believed to have taken both Israeli soldiers and civilians hostage.
Earlier, in a statement filmed at Israel Defence forces headquarters in Tel Aviv, Mr Netanyahu declared ‘we are at war’ and said Hamas will pay ‘an unprecedented price’ for its attacks on Israel.
He said: ‘Citizens of Israel, we are at war. Not an operation, not a round [of fighting,] at war!’
He announced that he was launching an ‘extensive mobilisation of the reserves to fight back on a scale and intensity that the enemy has so far not experienced’.
In a further statement, the PM vowed Israel would ‘reach every place Hamas is hiding’. He says the terrorist group is responsible for the wellbeing of the more than 50 captives it has seized. ‘Israel will settle the score with anyone who harms them,’ he added.
Israeli forces have mounted strikes against targets in Gaza City following attacks on Saturday
A tower block in Gaza City is hit by an Israeli airstrike after Palestinian militants struck Israel
A rocket is launched from the coastal Gaza strip towards Israel by militants of the Ezz Al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of Hamas movement, in Gaza City, 7 October 2023
Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said a nurse and an ambulance driver were killed in Israeli strikes on two hospitals in Gaza. Israel fired a warning just before its devastating strike against the Palestine Tower.
Video footage showed the building erupting in flames as a blitz of six bombs smashed into it. The number of casualties was not immediately known. Soon after, Hamas fired a barrage of rockets into central Israel, hitting four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb, where two people were seriously injured.
Meanwhile, Israel was last night facing questions over its ‘colossal failure’ to foresee and prevent the unprecedented attacks from Gaza.
Hamas rocket and drone attacks were coupled with hundreds of gunmen rushing through breaches in the vast border fence to little apparent opposition, after which they spent Saturday indiscriminately killing civilians, seizing hostages and spreading terror.
Commentators were shocked at how such a major attack could have preserved the element of total surprise, despite Israel’s cutting-edge military and sophisticated intelligence services.
Netanyahu announced that he was launching an ‘extensive mobilisation of the reserves to fight back on a scale and intensity that the enemy has so far not experienced’. Pictured: Fire and smoke rises above Gaza after an Israeli air strike
moke and flames rise after Israeli forces airstrikes as clashes continue between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups
‘All of Israel is asking itself: Where is the IDF, where is the police, where is the security? It’s a colossal failure; the hierarchies have simply failed, with vast consequences’, Eli Maron, the former head of the Israeli Navy, said.
Others compared the attack to the beginning of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, which also began with surprise Arab attacks on the eponymous High Holy Day, before Israel launched a successful fightback.
Asked by reporters how Hamas had managed to catch the military off guard, Lt Col Hecht replied: ‘That’s a good question.’
Theories quickly began circulating in Israeli media. Some suggested protests near the Gaza border fence could have been used to disguise operations.
Others blamed the distraction caused by recent political battles over judicial reforms that were pushed forward by the PM and his far-Right coalition partners.
Liberal and Left-wing opponents said they would weaken the rule of law and potentially usher in dictatorship, leading to hundreds of military reservists threatening to stop reporting for duty.
Mainstream protest groups yesterday cancelled further demonstrations and urged supporters to rally to the defence of Israel, ‘without hesitation and immediately’ in light of events.
The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, violence at Al Aqsa – the disputed Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount – increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians and growth of settlements.
He said the morning attack was only the start of what he called ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Storm’.
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