Opinion on Israel’s Worst Day at War
New chapter in the war between Israel and the occupiers: a two-decade high in the militant conflict in the West Bank, Lebanon
In an assault without recent precedent in its complexity and scale, the militants crossed into Israel by land, sea and air, according to the Israeli military, leading to some of the first pitched battles between Israeli and Arab forces on Israeli soil in decades.
More than 200 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank so far this year, often during gun battles between militants and the Israeli Army — a two-decade high. There have been at least 36 deaths of Israelis this year, which is a two-decade high.
Unverified video footage, circulated by Hamas, the Iran-backed militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, appeared to show some Palestinian gunmen arriving in Israel in a sort of makeshift hang glider.
Photographs show dead bodies in the streets of Sderot. Hundreds of young Israelis sprinted for safety after the militant targeted an all night dance festival in the desert.
“We are at war and we will win it,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a televised statement, announcing a call-up of hundreds of thousands of Israeli military reservists.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Nasser Kanani, said the operation opens a new chapter in the field of resistance and armed operations against the occupiers in the occupied territories.
The violence in the region spread so quickly that Israel was questioning Iran’s possible role in the operation. In addition to Hamas, Tehran backs another Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, providing all of them with weaponry and intelligence.
The United Nations is increasing activity on Israel’s border with southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has strongholds, following a skirmish with Israeli troops on Saturday.
An Israeli Defense Minister Tells President Biden: “The Palestinians are Killing Israel, and that is ours to be Defended”
50 years ago, after the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Israel was stunned by an Arab attack on multiple fronts, leading to huge Israeli losses and soul-searching.
As this column has been pointing out ever since he came back to power, Netanyahu’s politics of division have done terrible damage to Israel. All other priorities were sacrificed in order to strip Israeli Supreme Court’s power to oversee his government. He caused a breakdown of Israeli society and the military. People have been warning for months about how dangerous this could be. A former director general of the Israeli Defense Ministry told a Tel Aviv democracy rally this week that he had never seen national security in a worse state and that there had already been damage to the reserve units of the Israel Defense Forces.
The scale of the latest Palestinian attack shocked Israelis, many of whom were observing the Jewish Sabbath. They were caught off guard. They had expected the Gaza front to remain quiet for the foreseeable future, after international mediators appeared to have persuaded Hamas to end a recent weekslong series of riots and protests on the border with Israel.
Mr. Netanyahu spoke with President Biden by phone on Saturday afternoon, his office said, telling Mr. Biden that “a forceful and continued battle will be required, in which Israel will triumph.” In his own statement, Mr. Biden said that “the United States unequivocally condemns this appalling assault against Israel” and that “Israel has a right to defend itself and its people.”
Israeli Defense Fails Can Change Strategy Toward Hamas and Gaza: Gaza’s Many Families Flee Without a Rest in Their Homes
After Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, Israel and Egypt placed a blockade on the enclave, heightening the dire humanitarian situation there. Unemployment is close to 50 percent in the Gaza Strip, and only 10 percent of Gazans have direct access to clean water, according to UNICEF.
Hamas has been able to break out of Gaza due to the fortresslike nature of the region, as well as the reinforced walls and fencing that keep Hamas from sneaking into Israel. They have never been so deep into Israeli territory. The remains of two Israeli troops are believed to have been captured and held captive by the group for five years before being released in a prisoner swap in 2011.
Over the past months, Israel has been allowing thousands of Palestinians to cross into Israel every day, which has helped Gaza’s economy and alleviated a general sense of calm.
The Israeli Army had secured the land border and made it difficult for a ground invasion to take place.
Palestinian extremists swiftly bypassed the border with relative ease Saturday morning, forcing their way through gaps in the fortifications and storming into several towns and army bases.
The residents of the Israeli border towns were interviewed by Israeli broadcasters, saying that the gunmen forced them to barricade themselves in their bomb shelters and were walking through their houses.
The streets of Gaza City were empty as residents took to the schools to take shelter. Lines also formed at supermarkets, as people stocked up on supplies. Gazans living close to the border fled to areas farther inside the enclave fearing a Israeli ground invasion.
“We can’t take it anymore,” said Jamila Al-Zanin, 39, a mother of three, who was one of those who fled with their families away from the border. The situation is really, really bad.
Source: ‘We Are at War,’ Netanyahu Says After Hamas Attacks
The fate of Israel and the West Bank in a war of aggression: Israeli-Israeli exchanges and the threat of retaliation
Analysts expected the Gaza war could set off a surge in violence in the West Bank, which has already experienced its bloodiest year since the second intifada, a Palestinian uprising that left 1,000 Israelis and around 3,000 Palestinians dead by the time it ended in 2005.
The reporting included Raja Abdulrahim from Istanbul, Iyad Abuheweila and Gabby Sobelman in Israel,Aaron Boxerman in London and Euan Ward and Hwaida Sead in Lebanon.
So they must now conduct this war, make excruciating decisions about trade-offs among deterrence, retaliation, getting hostages back from Hamas and maybe even invading Gaza, knowing all the time that even if they manage all of these perfectly, some kind of inquiry awaits them at the end of the road. It’s hard to think straight under those conditions.
