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Israel war 2023
The war against Hamas will likely go on for several more months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, adding his country’s forces are “fighting on all fronts” as the new year looms.
“We will ensure that Hamas will not continue to be a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu, 74, said at the Saturday evening presser.
The prime minister also vowed to continue repelling attacks from Hezbollah in the north, where thousands of Israelis have been forced to evacuate due to the threat of the Lebanese terror group.
Israel is “acting against Iran constantly, everywhere, in any way” as the country continues to prop up Hamas and other terror efforts that target his country’s security, Netanyahu said.
He slammed former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for publicly discussing Israeli attacks on Iran, per the Times of Israel.
Bennett, 51, made headlines Thursday when he wrote in the Wall Street Journal that, as prime minister, he had ordered Israel’s security forces to strike Iran twice in 2022, the outlet explained.
“This is extremely irresponsible. You don’t do that. And he doesn’t have the authority to do it — only a sitting prime minister does, and I would do that sparingly as well,” Netanyahu said of the political rival’s admission.
Despite his seemingly forceful address, Netanyahu may be dealing with strife within his inner circle of the war effort, as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and war cabinet member Benny Gantz declined to join him at the press conference, Haaretz reported.
The prime minister’s public appearance also came at the same time as hundreds of mournful protestors gathered in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square to commemorate those killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack and demand the return of the remaining hostages, the Times of Israel noted.
Another protest nearby demanded an end to the war and Israel’s military presence in the West Bank, the outlet said.
“This is our life with Netanyahu in power. Catastrophe after catastrophe after catastrophe,” the demonstrators chanted.
Also on Saturday, Israel’s Channel 12 alleged large amounts of Chinese-made weapons were being used by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The unsourced report claimed Israeli government officials have seen evidence of the weaponry.
Ahead of Netanyahu’s presser, the Israel Defense Forces announced it carried out “widespread” strikes on Hezbollah sites in Kfarkela, Lebanon on Saturday, the Times of Israel’s Emanuel Fabian wrote on X alongside footage of the operations.
The terrorist group has launched many of its rocket and missile attacks on Israel from the village, the IDF said.
Most of the rockets Hezbollah aimed at Israel Thursday, about 80 percent of them, actually landed within Lebanese borders, Israel said.
“Not only does Hezbollah continue to violate @UN SC Resolution 1701, the terrorist organization also actively puts Lebanese lives at risk,” the military wrote on X.
That same day, Hamas operatives fired on troops from the IDF’s 188th Brigade from a school where civilians were sheltering in the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, Fabian reported Saturday.
“The terrorists took advantage of the presence of civilians in the school area in order to fire RPGs and small arms at the forces, while hiding behind women and children,” the IDF said of the incident.
Ahead of the new year, the IDF spent most of the late week and early weekend advancing deeper into southern Gaza Saturday, raiding Hamas sites in Khan Younis and uncovering “documents of great value” from the terror group’s headquarters, the military confirmed on X.
The IDF’s 7th Armored Brigade also uncovered a command center of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad – an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood – in the city, the military said on X.
Efforts also continued to disable Hamas in the north.
“The fighters are conducting fierce battles against terrorists, the Air Force is attacking terrorist units and infrastructure under the direction of the forces, and the Marine Corps fighters are assisting the forces maneuvering in the Gaza Strip with attacks and fire from the sea,” the IDF wrote on X, alongside videos and photo of the military operating throughout the small region.
On Friday, the IDF shared footage of the tunnels of Hamas general headquarters unearthed in one of leader Yahya Sinwar’s “hideout apartments” in northern Gaza, according to a post on X.
“Part of a long and branching tunnel network, the tunnel shaft in the apartment led to a 218-meter-long tunnel, with a depth of about 20 meters,” the military wrote alongside photos of the shaft.
“Inside these tunnels, Senior Hamas officials were living comfortably with an electricity network, ventilation and sewage infrastructure, prayer rooms and resting rooms,” the post added.
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The tunnel was destroyed after it was inspected by the IDF.
The Israel-Hamas war has been raging since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 terror attack on southern Israel.
In just under three months, Israel has dropped 29,000 bombs and munitions on Gaza, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Around half of Gazan buildings have been damaged or destroyed by the fighting, including 70 percent of the region’s 439,000 homes, the outlet said.
Only eight of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still accepting patients, the Journal added, and most of the communication, water, and electrical infrastructure has been decimated.
“The word ‘Gaza’ is going to go down in history along with Dresden and other famous cities that have been bombed,” Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, told the outlet.
Meanwhile, the IDF is facing criticism for allegedly failing to have a plan in place for a situation like Hamas’ massive surprise attack that killed 1,200 people, the New York Times reported.
The terror group overran the border and unleashed unspeakable horrors for several hours before Israeli troops successfully intervened, the outlet noted.
“In practice, there wasn’t the right defensive preparation, no practice, and no equipping and building strength for such an operation,” Yom Tov Samia, a major general in the Israeli reserves and former head of the military’s Southern Command, told the Times.
“There was no defense plan for a surprise attack such as the kind we have seen on Oct. 7,” Amir Avivi, a brigadier general in the reserves and a former deputy commander of the Gaza Division, added.
Yaakov Amidror, a retired Israeli general and a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said “there was no such plan” to repel such a violent assault because “the army does not prepare itself for things it thinks are impossible.”
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Syrian media outlets reported an alleged Israeli airstrike in the Aleppo area, the Times of Israel said.
Air defenses were supposedly engaged the strike over the Aleppo International Airport, the pro-government Sham FM radio said, according to the Times of Israel.
Images on social media showed what appeared to be large plumes of smoke in the area.
Earlier in the day, one Israeli was reportedly wounded in a car-ramming attack at a military position in Hebron in the southern West Bank, correspondent Carmel Dangor wrote on X.
The terrorist behind the attack was “eliminated,” Dangor said.
The car-ramming took place near the al-Fawwar refugee camp, not far from where a similar attack wounded five soldiers on Friday, the Times of Israel said.
On Friday, the US State Department announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken approved a $147.5 million sale of equipment – including fuses, charges and primers – to Israel.
The transaction marks the second time in a month the Biden administration has bypassed Congress to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel.
“It is vital to U.S. national interests to ensure Israel is able to defend itself against the threats it faces,” the State Department said.
With Post wires
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