Israel is drawing on its huge military might – including thousands of tanks, warplanes and troops – to obliterate Hamas after the terrorists launched a surprise assault that has so far killed 700 Israelis.
Israeli forces have already used their strike force of 600 planes and 300 rocket launchers to relentlessly pound the Gaza Strip, with airstrikes and artillery destroying 1,000 targets belonging to Hamas and killing 560 Palestinians.
And the onslaught won’t stop there, with Israel’s 173,000 soldiers, including 8,000 of its fearsome elite commandos, vying for the opportunity to kill Hamas terrorists who have killed more than 700 Israelis so far, including those massacred at a festival.
They are now preparing to launch a massive co-ordinated ground assault within the ‘next 48 hours’ to destroy the Hamas fighters and infrastructure in Gaza that will see fierce fighting erupt in the streets.
The ground troops are drawing from Israel’s arsenal of 300 military tanks including self-propelled howitzers to scour the country’s southern and northern borders for Hamas gunman and guard the breaches in its border.
Israel’s military might is far superior to that of the Hamas terrorists, who currently only possess around 10,000 rockets that had been built up in secret.
On top of the 173,000 active Israeli soldiers, Israel has today drafted in a record 300,000 reservists in its response to a multi-front Hamas attack from Gaza and is ‘going on the offensive,’ the chief military spokesperson said.
Video shows hundreds of cars belonging to Israeli reservists abandoned along the streets close to a military base near Gaza after they reported for duty following Hamas’s attack.
Israel is also drawing on its special forces from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit to fight against Hamas. It is believed that they will be aiming to take out those high-ranking fighters within the terrorist organisation and also rescue the hundreds of Israelis who have been taken hostage.
Israel’s Defence Forces have said they want to completely strip Hamas of its power to govern in Palestine after what has been described as the country’s ‘worst day in history’ with the number of Israeli’s killed in the conflict set to rise further.
Hundreds of Palestinians, including children, have also been killed and buildings reduced to rubble after Israel began its deadly revenge attack.
The Israeli airstrikes have so far killed 500 people and flattened much of the town of Beit Hanoun in the Palestinian enclave’s north-east corner, which Hamas terrorists had been using as a staging ground for their attacks.
In a statement, the Israeli Air Force said it dropped some 2,000 munitions and more than 1,000 ton bombs on Gaza aimed at over 10,000 targets in Gaza in the last 20 hours.
Among the targets were three rocket launchers directed at Israel, a mosque where militants were operating and 21 high-rise buildings that served militant activity.
But Palestinians are preparing for an offensive of unprecedented scale on the tiny, crowded enclave, exceeding previous bouts of destructive warfare that they fear will leave survivors destitute, without homes, water, electricity, hospitals or food.
‘It doesn’t need much thinking about. Israel suffered the biggest loss in its history so you can imagine what it is going to do,’ said a resident of Beit Hanoun on Gaza’s northeastern border with Israel.
‘I took my family out at sunrise and dozens of other families did the same. Many of us got phone calls, audio messages from Israeli security officers telling us to leave because they will operate there,’ he said.
Families began stockpiling food as soon as Saturday’s attack began but fear that despite Hamas assurances supplies will run low.
And now, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has warned that the price Gaza would pay ‘will change reality for generations’ and Israel was imposing a total blockade with a ban on food and fuel imports as part of a battle against ‘animals’.
The measures will essentially enact siege-like conditions that will see the millions of Palestinians living in the tiny, fenced-in region begin to starve as they are attacked from the skies.
By Monday afternoon, Hamas said more than 500 people had been killed, 2,700 wounded and 80,000 displaced in the hundreds of strikes that Israeli warplanes, drones, helicopters and artillery cannon have fired into Gaza.
Gaza has no protected shelters designated for times of war.
It comes as Israeli soldiers backed by helicopters killed at least two gunmen who crossed the northern border from Lebanon today, in a sign of a possible new front opening as Israel’s forces continued to battle Hamas terrorists to the south.
Artillery shelling and gunfire were heard at Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, a local journalist said.
Earlier, Israel’s army said its forces were in ‘full control of communities’ in its southern territory near Gaza – hours after it said it was fighting Hamas terrorists in ‘seven to eight’ locations in the south.
‘We are in full control of the communities,’ military spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists.
But he said that fighting still raged in locations inside Israel where the fighters were still holed up after killing 700 Israelis and seizing dozens of hostages in a raid that shattered Israel’s reputation of invincibility.
‘We are now carrying out searches in all of the communities and clearing the area,’ he said in a televised briefing.
Military officials had previously said that their focus was on securing Israel’s side of the border before carrying out any major escalation of the counter-offensive in Gaza.
But Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally declared war on Sunday and has vowed to completely destroy ‘the military and governing capabilities’ of Hamas, which is deeply rooted in Gaza and has ruled unchallenged since 2007.
Hagari said 300,000 reservists have been called up by the military since Saturday, , suggesting greater fighting lies ahead with a possible ground assault into Gaza.
‘We have never drafted so many reservists on such a scale,’ he said. ‘We are going on the offensive.’
