Israel-Palestine war news: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address to his countrymen that Israel has ‘only started’ a strong offensive in the Gaza strip in response to an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian militant outfit Hamas.
“We have only started striking Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations,” he added. Israel amped up airstrikes on the Gaza strip and sealed off Palestinian territory from food, fuel, and other supplies in retaliation for the incursion by Hamas militants.
Israel’s offensive came after Hamas mounted escalation on Monday as it pledged to kill captured Israelis if its attacks targeted civilians without warnings. Netanyahu’s address to his countrymen came hours after his office on Monday dismissed reports suggesting that his office ignored warnings of an attack by Hamas. A report by news agency Associated Press suggested that Tel Aviv was repeatedly cautioned of a “big” event planned by the Palestinian militant outfit but chose to ignore those warnings instead.
An Egyptian intelligence official told the news agency that Israel “underestimated” these warnings. “We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it will be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” the official told Associated Press.
This, however, is not the instance wherein Egypt reportedly warned Israel about an impending Hamas operation on its soil. In another instance, Egyptian intelligence minister General Abbas Kamel personally alerted Netanyahu about a potential large-scale operation by Hamas just 10 days before the attack.
Despite these warnings, Israel was reportedly indifferent and Netanyahu reportedly said the military was occupied with issues in the West Bank area, according to another report in Ynet news.
Calling the allegations a “complete lie”, Netanyahu’s office said in a post on X that no such early warning came from the Egyptian government or the country’s intelligence apparatus. Israeli PMO further said that Netanyahu did not have any direct or indirect communication with the Egyptian intelligence chief since the establishment of his government in Israel.
Israel-Palestine war updates
Meanwhile, the death toll on both sides has reached nearly 1,600 so far. Due to Hamas’ attack in Israel, more than 800 people have lost their lives so far. Over 100 bodies have been recovered from the Israeli community Beeri that was seized by Hamas fighters on Saturday.
The Israeli counter strikes have claimed at least 680 lives in Gaza so far. Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country is ready to mediate in the Israel-Palestine crisis. Erdogan further said that peace cannot be restored in the region unless a free sovereign Palestinian state is established.
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