As the war entered its sixth day, Israel maintained its aerial attack against a battered Gaza.
More than 2,700 people have died in the continuing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas as of Thursday, making it the most dangerous escalation in the region in decades. RT examines the major developments in the conflict’s first six days.
war starts
Hamas’ operation, dubbed “Al-Aqsa Flood,” started early on Saturday morning with a steady barrage of rockets fired from Gaza targeting Israeli objectives. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) estimated that 2,500 to 2,500 missiles were launched in the opening barrage, although Hamas, the Palestinian group that has been de facto in charge of Gaza since 2007, claimed that 5,000 rockets were launched.
After the bombardment, Hamas destroyed some of the border fence dividing Israel and Gaza while more than 1,000 of its fighters flooded into Israel on motorcycles, pickup trucks, and paragliders.
assaults against civilians
According to a count by Al Jazeera, the Hamas units stormed 22 cities, villages, and settlements in Israeli territory by Saturday afternoon. Soon after, there were reports of appalling cruelty, with at least 260 Israeli and foreign citizens being killed at a music festival and an undetermined number being taken prisoner by the militants.
The Be’eri and Kfar Aza kibbutzim (communal farms), where homes were pillaged and men, women, and children were killed, provided some of the most horrifying photos. As of Thursday, bodies were still being retrieved from Be’eri, the scene of an incident when, according to Israeli police, 110 people were killed and others were taken hostage to Gaza.
While pro-Israel politicians and pundits have also spread unfounded rumours, including the widely repeated but officially denied claim that Hamas fighters beheaded 40 babies and raped numerous women, stories and images from these settlements and others have stoked international support for Israel.
Israel reacts.
After IDF troops were sent to rid Israeli towns and villages of Hamas fighters on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed a state of war. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant declared “a complete siege” of Gaza on Monday, cutting off the 2.4 million residents of the small Palestinian territory from food, water, fuel, medical care, and electricity.
A politician from Israel advocates the use of “doomsday weapons.”
Learn more. A politician from Israel advocates the use of “doomsday weapons.”
Since Saturday, Israeli aircraft have been continuously bombing Gaza, apparently caring little about human lives. Israeli bombs have destroyed entire city blocks, and the Palestinian Health Ministry reported on Thursday that more than 1,400 people, including 447 children, had died in the attacks. On Thursday morning, Yusuf Abu al-Reesh, the deputy health minister for Palestine, asserted that women, children, and the elderly make up the majority of those killed and injured.
The formation of a wartime unity government was declared by Netanyahu and the leader of the opposition, Benny Gantz, on Wednesday, one day after the authorization for the call-up of 360,000 military reservists. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht stated on Thursday that his organisation is “getting ready for a ground manoeuvre” into Gaza, but he also noted that the government has not yet authorised such an operation.
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Israel missed the strike in what way?
How Israeli intelligence, which was previously believed to have Gaza under nearly omniscience observation, managed to miss Hamas’ preparations for the attack has been a source of controversy.
The Associated Press was informed by Egyptian intelligence officials on Monday that they had repeatedly forewarned their Israeli counterparts about an impending attack. The head of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington and another anonymous Egyptian source who spoke to the Times of Israel have both backed up this assertion.
What a US “peace plan” did to bring conflict to Israel’s doorstep
Although the person who spoke to the Times of Israel acknowledged that Cairo’s messages may not have reached the Israeli leader’s desk, Netanyahu denies receiving any notice.
The Israeli military received flak for its tardy response to the initial Gazan onslaught. Two thirds of the IDF personnel typically stationed near the Gaza border, according to an Israeli source cited by American writer Seymour Hersh, had been transferred to the West Bank prior to Saturday to provide security for an Orthodox Jewish celebration.
Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the IDF, admitted on Thursday that his troops “did not handle” the unexpected onslaught well. In a statement that was shown on television, he added, “We will research and learn, but the time is now for battle.
Does Hamas use weaponry from Ukraine?
How Hamas gathered the armaments for its assault is a mystery. Instead of the Kalashnikov variations that are more frequently linked with the group, militants in photos are seen with AR-15-style weapons.
According to former CIA analyst Larry Johnson, “it’s probably 100% certain that the United States supplied the weapons,” he said on Monday to RT. Johnson hypothesised that the weapons might have originated from either stockpiles abandoned in Afghanistan or Ukraine, where the US had “no effective controls” over the tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons deployed since last February.
Hostages, fatalities, and injuries
According to statistics made public by the Israeli government on Thursday, more than 3,000 Israelis have been injured in addition to more than 1,300 deaths. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, more than 1,400 Palestinians have died and another 5,000 more have been injured. Esref al-Kudra, a ministry spokesman, warned that the Israeli siege poses a “significant danger” to public health and predicted that casualties in Gaza would climb as long as Israeli airstrikes continued.
Around 150 hostages are reportedly being held by Hamas in Gaza. For every Israeli airstrike that kills a civilian, the terrorists have vowed to kill one hostage, but as of Thursday night, no killings had been confirmed.
What follows is what?
Since neither side has outlined any terms for a settlement, the war appears certain to continue. Netanyahu issued a warning on Saturday that Israel was entering a “long and difficult war,” and an IDF official stated on Thursday that Hamas was ready for a “long war.”
The violence looks to be temporarily contained despite periodic gunfights between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and Syria.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, is now stationed in the eastern Mediterranean as part of a pledge to increase military assistance to Israel. US President Joe Biden said in a speech on Wednesday that he had cautioned Iran, which supports Hezbollah, to “be careful.”
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