Israeli forces continued fighting against the Palestinian Hamas militants in multiple locations on Sunday. This fight has intensified with more than six hundred killed on both sides in Israel and Gaza.
After the unprecedented attack by the Hamas group rampaging through the south of Israel, killing hundreds of citizens of Israel and seizing hostages. Israel was left in a state of utter shock.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a “long and difficult war” that is about to come, but his military was still battling to drive out Hamas militants while launching retaliatory strikes on Gaza.
The Northern part of Israel saw mortar shelling from the Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah, which targeted Israeli posts on Sunday. Israeli Military has stated that they have responded with artillery strikes towards Lebanon and a drone attack on Hezbollah post near the border.
The Death Toll on Israel and Gaza
More than 200 people lost their lives due to the thousands of missiles that were fired by Hamas. Even gunmen were sent through the security barrier into Israel’s south side.
The bombardment which took place in retaliation killed at least 313 people in Gaza with around 20 children who were killed and close to 2,000 injured. These death tolls were expected to rise significantly as Israel was stunned by the violent incursion which they hadn’t seen since the earliest days.
Netanyahu has said that the enemy will pay a price that they have never known before, warning Palestinians in Gaza to leave immediately without any delay.
The response by Israel will be quite complicated as Hamas has captured dozens of Israeli hostages with some from the military and the rest being civilians. The hostages include women and even children.
Social media and Israeli TV were bombarded with messages from devastated family members who were afraid for their loved ones who had been taken captive by the gunmen in their homes and were going to be used as bargaining chips to trade for Palestinian prisoners or stop any Israeli ground assault.
These attacks represented the most violent and dangerous escalation in conflict in decades and happened about 50 years after the Arab-Israeli War in 1973 when Israel was taken by surprise in a sudden attack by Egypt and Syria.
he coordinated attacks once again took Israel by surprise once again which raised questions about how vaunted intelligence agencies both there and in the United States failed to raise the alarm.
President Joe Biden joined the world leaders in condemning the attack, declaring that his administration shows their support for Israel’s security and has stated that it is “rock solid and unwavering.”
Saleh al-Arouri who is a prominent leader of Hamas, said this Saturday that the attack was not an operation, but rather an open battle with one goal: the freedom of the Palestinian people and the liberation of their sanctities.
Hamas has claimed that they were taking revenge for the recent actions done by Israel at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque and in the West Bank where residents reported a rise in attacks for which the Palestinians blamed Israel’s right-wing government.
The assault followed a period of heavy fighting in the West Bank, where nearly 200 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military raids, according to the U.N. Mideast Envoy Tor Wennesland. Israel says that the raids are aimed at militants, but stone-throwing protesters and people who are uninvolved in the violence have also been killed.
Analysts have warned that the outbreak of this kind of warfare would not be short-lived with some former U.S. intelligence and military officers claiming that the attacks may have been executed at such a time to disrupt any U.S.-brokered Israeli-Saudi agreement.
