Hamas terrorists launched a massive surprise attack on civilian areas across Southern Israel on Saturday, with reports of mass casualties, kidnappings of Israeli civilians, and rocket attacks.
Summary
Hamas terrorists launched a massive surprise attack on civilian areas across Southern Israel on Saturday, with reports of mass casualties, kidnappings of Israeli civilians, and rocket attacks. “We are at war, and we will win it,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
- Approximately 22 Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip were targeted by dozens of terrorists who murdered any civilian they could find and seized several civilians and soldiers as hostages in an attack of unprecedented scale during the major Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. Thousands of rockets have rained down on Israeli cities and towns.
- Bodies lay strewn across the streets of multiple Israeli towns and cities as Hamas terrorists raided civilians’ homes door-to-door in search of new victims. Many commentators have called the massive surprise attack targeting civilians “Israel’s 9/11.”
- Hamas claimed to have seized dozens of captives, including senior Israeli military officials. The Israeli Defense Forces have confirmed that soldiers and civilians – including women, the elderly, and small children – were being held captive in the Gaza Strip.
- The Israeli health ministry reported the death toll has risen to 200 with more than 1,000 injured with dozens in critical condition. The grim numbers are only expected to rise. The Palestinian health ministry claims 198 people have died and 1,610 have been wounded in Gaza.
- Israeli fighter jets launched retaliatory attacks on Gaza City, with airstrikes demolishing several high-rise buildings including the 11-story Palestine Tower that houses Hamas radio stations.
- “The United States unequivocally condemns this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, and I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the Government and people of Israel,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “Terrorism is never justified. Israel has a right to defend itself and its people.”
- Biden will address the nation from the White House at 2:30 pm Eastern Time on Saturday.
- “It is hard to describe just how unprecedented today’s developments are,” wrote Paul Adams for the BBC. “Not only is this likely to be the worst intelligence failure since the 1973 Yom Kippur war (and the timing is no accident – it’s 50 years almost to the day), but rarely, if ever, has Israel lost control of its own towns. The scenes from Sderot and other communities around the Gaza Strip, with Palestinian gunmen apparently roaming the streets at will, kidnapping and killing civilians, will send the deepest shockwaves throughout Israel. That, of course, is the point.”
- The New York Times covered the brutal Hamas attack on the city of Sderot. Verified footage shows the bodies of at least 10 civilians at a highway intersection after a group of at least seven gunmen drove through the town, opening fire on any civilians they could find. Additional photos show at least 9 more bodies near a bus stop next to a playground.
- Axios’ Barak Ravid noted, “The last serious invasion against Israel took place in 1973” – the 50th anniversary was yesterday – “and it caught the country and its leadership by complete surprise.” Ravid reported the Israeli energy minister has halted all electricity supplied to Gaza by Israel.
- The New York Post reported Biden administration was forced to delete its initial response to Hamas’ attacks on Israel. The Office for Palestinian Affairs called for Israel to “refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks” at the same time Hamas terrorists were murdering civilians in their homes and broadcasting their murders on their victims’ social media accounts.
- The Wall Street Journal covered the horrific hostage-taking attacks on Israeli civilians. “Yoni Asher, 37, said his wife, Doron, 34, went missing along with their two daughters, ages 5 and 3, while she was visiting her mother in Nir Oz, an Israeli village near the border with Gaza. He last spoke to her around 11 a.m. local time Saturday, when she told him Hamas militants were in the house, and she was trapped in the shelter with their daughters. She also said her mother’s partner, who is 79, was taken by the militants. Several hours later a neighbor helped Asher track his wife’s phone and it showed up in Khan Yunis, a city in Gaza.”
- Congressional Republicans are blasting the Biden administration for its decision to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian assets just weeks ago given Iran’s known sponsorship of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad, Fox News reported. Iran funds Palestinian terrorist organizations to the tune of $100 million a year. The Biden administration insists that the funds could only be used for “humanitarian” purposes, but, of course, money is fungible and the Iranian president himself pledged to use the money to attack the West.
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
