The Israeli Defense Forces began a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip on Monday morning, less than 3 days after an unprecedented surprise attack by Hamas terrorists killed more than 800 people, including at least 9 Americans.
Summary
The Israeli Defense Forces began a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip on Monday morning, less than 3 days after an unprecedented surprise attack by Hamas terrorists killed more than 800 people, including at least 9 Americans.
- Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced the “complete siege” of Gaza, saying “What was in the past will no longer be in the future.” Gallant added, “we are fighting animals and are acting accordingly.”
- Israel has cut Gaza off from accessing electricity, food, water and fuel. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have no access to electricity and the internet, and fuel supplies could be exhausted in the next 24-72 hours.
- The State Department confirmed that nine Americans were killed over the weekend during the Hamas attacks. An unknown number of Americans remain unaccounted for, and it’s unclear whether they’ve been taken hostage, were killed or are just unable to communicate.
- The death toll of the massacre at the Tribe of Nova music festival has risen to 260. The mass murder at the music festival now constitutes the worst civilian massacre in Israeli history and the worst terrorist attack on a musical performance, surpassing the 2015 massacre at the Bataclan theater in Paris where ISIS terrorists murdered 90 civilians.
- Reuters reported that Hamas took advantage of Israeli programs offering work permits so Gazans can work in Israel or the West Bank. Hamas duped Israel into believing they cared more about access to jobs, but instead Hamas used those permits to scout out potential areas to attack and used two years of planning to lull Israel into a false sense of security.
- The European Union announced it would “immediately” suspend sending hundreds of millions in aid to the Palestinian authorities due to the “scale of terror and brutality” of Hamas. The suspension comes just hours after the EU insisted that no EU money was being sent to Hamas – although if that was the case, why would they need to suspend aid?
- Yoni Asher recounted to the New York Times the moment his wife Doron Asher Katz and his daughters Aviv, 3, and Raz, 5, were taken hostage by Hamas. Asher was able to track his wife’s phone to Khan Younis, a city in Gaza, and then saw on social media a video of his wife, daughters, and mother-in-law being paraded through the streets with other abducted Israelis.
- CNN reported on new footage from the music festival that shows attendees being shot at point-blank range by Hamas terrorists. CNN also interviewed the parents of Shani Louk and Noa Agramani, two young women attending the festival that were abducted by armed gunmen.
- According to Politico, Israel is seeking precision-guided munitions and additional equipment for the Iron Dome missile defense system from the US to help support its war effort against Hamas. Some military aid can likely be sent by the Biden administration without congressional approval, but Congress will need to legislate to send additional aid – a tough task without a Speaker.
- The Wall Street Journal reported Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps helped Hamas plot the attacks and gave the “green light” to Hamas last Monday in Beirut. IRGC officers were intimately involved in the planning since at least August. Despite public statements from Hamas and Israel and now extensive supporting, Biden administration officials still claim that they “haven’t seen evidence” of Iran’s involvement.
- Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy called for President Joe Biden to send the US military to rescue Americans taken hostage by Hamas, according to the New York Post. McCarthy called for the end of “Biden’s policy on appeasement” and said his foreign policy “has only emboldened terrorists in handing over $6 billion to Iran.” McCarthy also criticized his counterpart Rep. Hakeem Jeffries for letting “anti-semitism grow” within his caucus by not criticizing the “Squad” members who called for Israel to “ceasefire” while Hamas terrorists were actively attacking Israeli civilians. “Saying ‘no comment’ is not leadership,” McCarthy added.
- National Review’s Noah Rothman argued the calls for a ceasefire from the left-wing fringe of the Democratic Party are really “calls to reward terrorism.” Rothman added, “The so-called ‘Squad’ is giving voice to a pernicious and false moral equivalence. It assigns agency only to the Jewish State and absolves those who murder Israelis of their actions. But theirs is a rump caucus within the Democratic Party. It’s not unreasonable to assume their depravity is not shared by Democrats in positions of leadership. Or, at least, it was until Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared to second their prescription.”
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
