ISABEL DEBRE
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli government promised Monday to hunt down Hamas fighters and to punish the Gaza Strip following a surprise weekend attack that killed more than 900 people in Israel, including at least 260 at a crowded music festival that became the scene of one of the country’s worst civilian massacres.
A day after formally declaring war, Israel’s military worked to crush Hamas fighters who might remain in southern towns and intensified its bombardment of Gaza, where more than 600 people have died since Saturday’s unprecedented incursion.
The militants blew through a fortified border fence and gunned down civilians and soldiers in Israeli communities along the Gaza frontier during a Jewish holiday. Israel struck back with airstrikes, including one that flattened a 14-story tower that held Hamas offices.
Here are some key takeaways from the war:
WHAT HAVE BOTH SIDES VOWED TO DO?
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday he had ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza and that authorities would cut electricity and block the entry of food and fuel to the Palestinian territory.
Hamas, meanwhile, pledged to kill one Israeli civilian captive any time Israel targets civilians in the Gaza Strip without warnings. Hamas and other militants in Gaza say they are holding more than 130 soldiers and civilians taken from inside Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a televised announcement that the offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip “has only started.”
“What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations,” Netanyahu said.
WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE GROUND?
The Israeli military moved additional forces near the border, raising the question of whether Israel will launch a ground assault into the tiny Mediterranean coastal territory. It would be the first since 2014.
In Gaza, tens of thousands fled their homes as relentless airstrikes leveled buildings, including in Gaza City’s residential and commercial district of Rimal and earlier in the southern city of Rafah.
Rockets fired from Gaza also hit two neighborhoods in Jerusalem on Monday evening.
There were more gruesome discoveries from the weekend attack, including when Israeli rescue workers found 100 bodies in the tiny farming community of Beeri.
HAT HAS BEEN THE RESPONSE FROM THE U.S. AND OTHER NATIONS?
The U.S. has already begun delivering critically needed munitions and military equipment to Israel, and the Pentagon is reviewing inventories to see what else can be sent quickly to boost its ally in the 3-day-old war with Hamas, a senior Defense Department official said Monday.
Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian, center, from Kibbutz Kfar Azza into the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday.
The official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive shipments. The weapons movement came as President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. death toll in the war has gone up to 11.
The leaders of numerous Western nations, including Britain and Germany, have condemned the attacks by Hamas, while Arab nations have urged that the fighting on both sides stop.
Meanwhile, the European Union reversed an earlier announcement by an EU commissioner that the bloc was “immediately” suspending development aid for Palestinian authorities and instead said it would urgently review such assistance in the wake of the attacks by Hamas to make sure no money was misused.
Arab foreign ministers plan to convene Wednesday in Cairo at the behest of the Palestinians. Arab League Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki said the ministers would discuss Arab efforts to “stop the Israeli aggression” on Gaza.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on both Hamas militants and Israeli forces to stop the violence and offered to mediate between the two parties.
China issued a strengthened statement condemning the killing and kidnapping of Israeli and foreign civilians by Hamas, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Schumer noted Monday. The statement came during a bipartisan congressional visit to Beijing that included a lengthy meeting with President Xi Jinping.
Supporters of Israel and backers of the Palestinian cause held competing rallies Sunday in several American cities and Monday in London; Athens, Greece; and France.
Israeli soldiers deploy in Sderot, Israel, on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip infiltrated Saturday into southern Israel and fired thousands of rockets into the country while Israel began striking targets in Gaza in response.
Major airlines have suspended flights in and out of Israel. Scores of arriving and departing flights at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport were canceled or delayed, according to the airport’s online flight board, which also showed a steady trickle of flights. Most were operated by Israel’s national airline El Al along with others by regional carriers such as Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines and Greece’s Blue Bird Airways.
American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines suspended service as the U.S. State Department issued travel advisories for the region citing potential for terrorism and civil unrest.
WHY DID THE ATTACK TAKE ISRAEL BY SURPRISE?
Israel’s eyes appeared to have been closed in the lead-up to the attack by Hamas, which broke down Israeli border barriers and sent hundreds of militants into Israel.
“This is a major failure,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “This operation actually proves that the (intelligence) abilities in Gaza were no good.”
Amidror declined to offer an explanation for the failure, saying lessons must be learned when the dust settles.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesman, acknowledged the army owes the public an explanation. But he said now is not the time. “First, we fight. Then we investigate,” he said.
Some say it is too early to pin the blame solely on an intelligence fault. They point to a wave of low-level violence in the West Bank that shifted some military resources there and the political chaos roiling Israel over steps by Netanyahu’s far-right government to overhaul the judiciary. The controversial plan has threatened the cohesion of the country’s powerful military.
WHAT PROMPTED THE ATTACK?
Hamas officials cited long-simmering tensions, including a dispute over the sensitive Al-Aqsa Mosque sacred to both Muslims and Jews. Competing claims over the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, have spilled into violence before, including a bloody 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2021.
In recent years, Israeli religious nationalists — such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister — have increased their visits to the compound. Last week, during the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli activists visited the site, prompting condemnation from Hamas and accusations that Jews were praying there in violation of the status quo agreement.
Hamas also has cited the expansion of Jewish settlements on lands Palestinians claim for a future state and Ben-Gvir’s efforts to toughen restrictions on Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Tensions escalated with recent violent Palestinian protests. In negotiations with Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations, Hamas has pushed for Israeli concessions that could loosen the 17-year blockade on the enclave and help halt a worsening financial crisis.
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