Team News Riveting
Jerusalem, October 12
Israel on Wednesday declared a direct war against Hamas and vowed to uproot the militant group, setting aside the humanitarian plea for water and power.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forged an emergency government on Wednesday to direct war against Hamas, and his defence minister vowed to wipe the Palestinian militant group “off the face of the earth” over its deadly weekend attack. Islamist Hamas gunmen invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday in a surprise assault that killed at least 1,200 people, the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israeli history.
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Israel Katz said no electricity or water would be supplied to Gaza until those abducted during Hamas’s shock onslaught are returned home. “Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be turned on, no water pump will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home,” he posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Humanitarianism for humanitarianism. And no one can preach morality to us,” he wrote.
The fate of an estimated 150 people abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip during the devastating attack by the Hamas terror group is still unclear.
On the other hand, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) fighter jets carried out a night of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, targeting Hamas’ elite fighting unit Nokhba that led the mass infiltration from the Strip on Saturday. The Israeli military attacked several operational headquarters from which Hamas organized the terrorist encroachment into Israeli territory.
The IDF also announced it had successfully targeted Mohammed Abu Shamala, a senior Hamas naval forces official. The IDF struck his home, which it said was used to store maritime weaponry that would have been used to attack the State of Israel.
Earlier on Tuesday, the IDF announced it had killed Hamas’s finance minister and one of its high command officials in charge of a mix of political and diplomatic issues. According to the military, Jawad Abu Shamala handled Hamas’ terror financing both within and outside Gaza. This attack came after multiple attacks on Hamas’ main banks in recent days. Zakariya Abu Moammar was the other official killed. He was involved in long-term strategic decisions as well as coordination with other terror groups.
Hamas claimed 1,203 Palestinians killed in Israeli retaliatory strikes on Gaza. The Hamas-run health ministry says 1,203 Palestinians have been killed and another 5,769 have been wounded in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
The Israel Defense Forces has said it has killed some 1,500 Palestinian terrorists in Israeli territory.
