Just a week ago, Benjamin Netanyahu was urging Israelis to take a break. He said citizens should ‘go for a walk in our beautiful country’ during the Sukkot holiday. He posed for photographs with his wife Sara in the Golan Heights, the two of them smiling as the sun set.
Tonight, he prepared citizens for an immense retaliation campaign against Israel’s foes.
He said that the air strikes seen so far against Gaza are ‘just the beginning’, and that ‘what we will do to our enemies in the next few days will echo for generations.’
Earlier today, his defence minister ordered a ‘complete siege’ of the Gaza strip, cutting two million people off from the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel. Israel has mobilised 300,000 military reservists, roughly the same number that Russia did when it invaded Ukraine (Israel’s population is 9 million; Russia’s is 143 million).
The opening of a second front between Israel and Hezbollah looks probable. There were skirmishes earlier today: rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon, with the IDF responding with artillery strikes. Three Palestinian Jihad members were killed near the Israeli-Lebanon border, after gunmen infiltrated Israeli territory.
Israel is yet to fully engage its ground forces, and Hezbollah is yet to fully mobilise
The IDF is set to instruct citizens to prepare for a three-day stay in bomb shelters and secure rooms. There are reports that Hezbollah has ordered a full-mobilisation of its forces in Lebanon: the group is thought to have around 25,000 fighters and up to 30,000 more reservists. Hezbollah is weaker militarily than the IDF, but has more rockets than most countries. Their arsenal is thought to contain up to 150,000 rockets, but that figure may have been bolstered by Iranian help.
Netanyahu tonight addressed his speech to Hamas primarily, and compared them to the Islamic State: ‘We have always known what Hamas is. Now the whole world knows. Hamas is Isis. And we will defeat [them] precisely as the enlightened world defeated Isis. Former PM Naftali Bennett said that the current conflict was the Yom Kippur war ‘multiplied by 100’, and that Israel is facing a ‘Nazi conception’ of ‘Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah [and] Iran.’
Hamas has pledged to publish a video of a hostage execution for every unannounced Israeli missile. Up to 130 Israelis are thought to be captive in Gaza.
Israel is yet to fully engage its ground forces, and Hezbollah is yet to fully mobilise. Around 900 Israelis have been killed, and Palestinian deaths have risen to almost 700. Netanyahu is promising revenge. Those figures will rise.
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