Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to avenge what he described as a ‘black day’ for Israel Saturday, declaring that the army will strike back at Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza with full force.
Speaking in a brief televised statement which was monitored by Africa Today News, New York, Netanyahu said; ‘The IDF (army) is about to use all its force to destroy Hamas’s capabilities’.
“We’ll strike them to the bitter end and avenge with force this black day they brought on Israel and its people,” he said, after Hamas militants launched a surprise dawn attack, sending hundreds of militants into Israel under cover of a huge rocket barrage.
Gun battles raged into the night after Hamas’ large-scale attack against Israel Saturday, firing thousands of rockets from Gaza and sending fighters to kill and abduct soldiers and civilians.
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The attack signals the first of such combined ground, air and sea offensive, half a century after the outbreak of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
“We are at war,” Netanyahu told the stunned nation as the army retaliated by pounding targets in the blockaded enclave, where several residential tower blocks were reduced to rubble.
About 80 people were killed in Israel, medical services said, while Gaza authorities released a death toll of 232 in the conflict’s bloodiest escalation in years which also left many hundreds wounded on both sides.
Meanwhile, Egypt has appealed for restraint from both Palestinians and Israel in the wake of a deadly assault by Hamas militants from Gaza, which encompassed air, land, and sea actions on Saturday. Israel retaliated with airstrikes.
Egypt, long known for its mediating role in conflicts involving both parties, has raised the alarm about the severe peril of continued escalation.
The Egyptian foreign ministry in a statement appealed to ‘both the Palestinian and Israeli sides to exercise the highest degrees of restraint’.
Top diplomat Sameh Shoukry made a series of calls Saturday in an attempt to rally “international actors” to “intervene immediately”.