Hamas inside Israel: The first televised comments since the Fourth Day of War in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s supreme leader, Mohammed Hassan
The Israeli military said Tuesday it had largely regained control of areas in the south that had been attacked by militants from Hamas. The announcement came on the fourth day of war with Hamas and amid an Israeli siege and heavy bombing of The Gaza Strip.
The military said it had found “hundreds and hundreds” of bodies of Hamas militants who died fighting inside Israel – an indication of the size of their attack. It said that there were no infiltrators from the Gaza border on Monday. Some holdout could still be on Israeli territory.
BEIRUT — Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, launched an attack inside Israel over the weekend, killing hundreds and taking others hostage. The group’s ability and strategy was raised questions after its unprecedented border breach which sent fighters inside border communities and military installations.
In his first televised comments since the war started, Iran’s supreme leader denied that his country was involved in the attack but he said that they kiss the hands of those who planned the attack.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel is not going to take the lead on the Israeli-Israeli war. Israel will not leave the Gaza Strip
Israel has put Gaza’s 2.3 million residents under complete siege, cutting off water, food, fuel and energy to the territory. Egypt has also closed its borders with Gaza.
Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, said on Monday that he would lay siege to the Gaza Strip as soon as possible, in order to stop the assault on his country by Hamas.
The bloodshed began on the Jewish Simchat Torah holiday, and a day after the 50th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur War, when Israel came under attack by Arab countries.
Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007, it has since had wars with Israel, which have imposed a blockade on the territory. There are other militant groups fighting with Israel.
“The atrocities committed by Hamas have not been seen since ISIS atrocities. Bound children executed along with their families,” Netanyahu described late Monday. The young men and women were executed. Other horrors I won’t describe here.”
Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu said on the weekend that anyone who is associated with Hamas should leave the Gaza Strip. Israel and Egypt have blockaded Gaza for 16 years.
The leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy made a statement condemning terrorism and the actions of Hamas.
They support equal measures of Justice and Freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike, and they recognized the legitimate desires of the Palestinian people.
“But make no mistake,” the group underscored. The Palestinians do not want Hamas to represent them, it offers nothing other than more terror and bloodshed.
The Israel-Israel Joint Strike Group (Hamas) and the United States: U.S. Ambassador to Israel and the Argentine Embassy
President Biden confirmed Monday at least 11 Americans have been killed and that it is believed that U.S. citizens are likely among those being held captive by Hamas.
“I have directed my team to work with their Israeli counterparts on every aspect of the hostage crisis, including sharing intelligence and deploying experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts,” he said in a statement.
Biden urged Americans who wish to leave the region to follow the guidance of local authorities, and added that commercial flights are still available.
The Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs said 250 of the country’s citizens had signed up for a registry to be used in case of an emergency, while two of their citizens were missing. Officials in Colombia said its consulate in Tel Aviv was assisting 180 Colombian tourists — mostly in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Bethlehem, and Nazareth.
The U.S. is trying to get Israel air defense and weaponry as soon as possible, officials tell NPR.
The USS Gerald Ford Strike Group is made up of an aircraft carrier, a guided missile cruiser, and guided missile destroyers and is going to the Mediterranean.
Dr. Medhat Abbas, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, says that Israel’s offensive in Gaza is putting a strain on the healthcare system in the area.
Hamas’ military wing, which carried out its first suicide attack in 1993, was established by the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, a man who used a wheelchair.
The U.S. State Department has designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1997. The European Union considers it to be a terrorist organization.
The group has vowed to annihilate Israel and has been responsible for many suicide bombings and other deadly attacks on civilians and Israeli soldiers.
Hamas won 2006 parliamentary elections elections and in 2007 violently seized control of the Gaza Strip from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority, dominated by the Fatah movement, is in charge of certain areas of the West Bank.
Yehia Sinwar, in Gaza, and Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in exile, are Hamas’ current leaders. They realigned the group’s leadership with Iran and its allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Since then, many of the group’s leaders relocated to Beirut.
In recent years, Israel has made peace deals with Arab countries without having to make concessions in its conflict with the Palestinians. The U.S. is trying to broker a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which are bitter rivals of Hamas’ Iranian backers.
The Hamas-Hezbollah Relationship: Implications for the Future of the West Bank, Palestine, and the Middle East
Its leaders say hundreds of its 40,000 fighters took part in the assault. Israel says the group has tens of thousands of fighters and a variety of rockets, some of which can travel up to 155 miles.
Iran has been ruled by Shia fundamentalists since the 1979 revolution. Max has said Hezbollah was created to projectIranian power in the region and to help export the Iranian revolution.
Iran’s association with Hezbollah and Hamas increases the likelihood that Iran will be attacked by Israel.
“I don’t think a major attack on Israel would be approved by the Iranian leadership,” he said. “Whereas I don’t know that Hamas waits for Iranian authorization … although this one might have been different,” he said, referencing the surprise attack from Gaza on Saturday morning.
Israeli intelligence analysts call the relationship among Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran “the resistance camp.” Neumann, the former head of research for the Israeli Security Agency, said they share a goal of creating a Muslim-run land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Neumann, now a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said despite sharing the same goal, the groups operate on different levels. Hezbollah has a far larger fighting force and is more well-equipped than Hamas.
Iran and Hezbollah leader Nasrallah are now aware that Hamas is a better player than they thought. In order to weaken Israel, Hamas is necessary.
They realized this, Neumann said Monday, after Hamas sought to unify disparate groups of Palestinians amid clashes with Israel in 2021, among them Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, and Arab Israelis, which constitute about 20% of Israel’s population.
Raisi also held phone calls with leaders from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad after the attacks against Israel began, Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA said Sunday.
He said there were meetings in Lebanon and Syria with the other leaders of the terror armies that surround Israel. Spokespeople for Hamas did not return requests for comment.
The response from southern Lebanon is not “opportunistic”, according to the director of the Middle East Institute at the University of London.
Source: Fighting with Israel signals coordination between Hamas and Hezbollah, analysts say
The Gaza Strip: An Unprecedented, Multifront Attack on Israel in Light of Lebanon’s Second Day of Referendum to the Knee Against Israel
The fighting around the northern Israeli border is at a much smaller scale than in southern Israel near Gaza, the Palestinian coastal enclave to Israel’s southwest. But the double-pronged attacks at both poles of Israel left many fearing a more widespread, regional escalation of violence.
Monday’s fighting follows rocket and drone attacks in the region on Sunday. The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon urged everyone to exercise control over the situation after Israel and Hezbollah fired across the border.
The Israeli military stated it killed fighters crossing the border from Lebanon. The Lebanese militant and political organization Hezbollah said one of its fighters was killed in Israel’s retaliation. An armed group called the Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed it had injured seven Israeli soldiers.
This week, militant groups in southern Lebanon escalated their attacks on neighboring northern Israel, prompting Israel to launch artillery and cross-border airstrikes.
The leaders of France and Germany on Tuesday signaled that officials are still looking for evidence of Tehran’s direct involvement in the Hamas attacks. But analysts interviewed by NPR say the link is undeniable.
Western and Middle Eastern intelligence officials have accused Iran of providing training, money and other assistance to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, who carried out an unprecedented, multifront assault on Israel on Saturday.