Upset by the deadliest attack on its territory since its creation, Israel officially declared war on Hamas on Sunday after the unprecedented offensive launched the day before by the Palestinian Islamist movement from Gaza, the death toll of which rose to more than a thousand deaths in total.
Seeking to regain control after this large-scale attack – land, air, sea – in the middle of Shabbat, the weekly Jewish rest, Israeli forces continued on Sunday to track down Hamas members in southern Israel and continued their airstrikes against targets in Gaza, where more buildings were destroyed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a “long” war, which left nearly a thousand dead in total in less than 48 hours, according to new official reports published on Sunday. More than 600 people have been killed in Israel and 2,000 injured, including 200 “in critical condition”, according to government data.
“The enemy is still on the ground” in Israel, “we are reinforcing our forces especially near Gaza and are clearing the area”, declared Sunday evening the spokesperson for the Israeli army, promising to track down “terrorists wherever they will be “.
Take Back Control
In the Gaza Strip under Hamas control since 2007, 413 Palestinians including 78 children and 41 women were killed, local authorities announced, and 2,300 injured.
The Israeli army has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers to regain full control of the desert regions near the Gaza Strip, rescue the Israeli hostages who are still there and evacuate all the inhabitants of the region here until Monday morning. Hamas has taken “more than 100 prisoners,” the Government Press Office (GPO) said on Sunday.
“Civilians and soldiers are in the hands of the enemy, it is war time,” said the head of the Israeli army, Herzi Halevi.
Ten Nepalis were killed during the Hamas offensive, as well as nationals of other countries, including a French woman.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called for “unity in the people, in Parliament and in an emergency government.”
Mr Netanyahu warned that “the war would be long and difficult”.
A 37-year-old Israeli woman said she was horrified to see several members of her family kidnapped in videos from Gaza, including her cousin and her children, aged nine months and three years. “This is the only confirmation we have,” Yifat Zailer told AFP by telephone, his voice breaking.
” September 11th “
Israel was further attacked on its northern border with Lebanon. Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and Iran, fired shells into a contested area of the border, prompting an Israeli drone strike on a Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon.
In Egypt, two Israeli tourists were killed by a police officer who shot at them in Alexandria, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian armed group, claimed to have captured “many soldiers”. “What happened is unprecedented in Israel,” admitted Mr. Netanyahu.
“Israel was taken by surprise by this unprecedented attack,” said Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Initiative for Middle East Security. “I’ve heard a lot of comparisons to 9/11 [2001 aux États-Unis], and many Israelis have difficulty understanding how this could have happened. »
A former Israeli soldier said the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, which remains a national trauma in Israel, was “small matter” compared to Saturday’s Hamas raid, adding that it was a “very serious failure “. The Hamas offensive was launched 50 years and one day after this war which took Israel completely by surprise and left 2,600 dead on the Israeli side in three weeks of fighting.
Faced with the Israeli counter-offensive, “we fear the destruction and the end of civil society in the Gaza Strip,” said Chadi al-Assi, a 29-year-old Gaza resident.
” Self-defense “
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military branch of Hamas, announced that they had launched this operation and fired more than 5,000 rockets towards Israel to “put an end to the crimes of the occupation”. Israel has occupied the West Bank, a Palestinian territory, and the eastern part of Jerusalem since 1967, and has imposed a blockade on Gaza since 2007.
Israel has suspended deliveries of electricity, food and goods to the Palestinian territory.
Israel’s Education Ministry announced the closure of schools until at least Tuesday.
The Hamas attack was condemned by the West. On Sunday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Israel had “the right to defend itself” against “barbaric” attacks by Hamas. The United States began sending military aid to Israel on Sunday with new munitions, and moving its carrier strike group closer to the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford in the Mediterranean.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak assured his Israeli counterpart of the UK’s “unwavering support”, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Israel and Hamas to “support peace” and spare civilians .
For its part, “Iran supports the self-defense of the Palestinian nation,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi declared on Sunday.
The UN Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting on the situation on Sunday.
On the market side, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s main TA-35 index fell 6.47% on Sunday, its worst session since March 2020, according to the financial information agency Bloomberg.