2023-10-22 02:30:19
As more and more protests denouncing the Israeli army’s bombing of Gaza take place around the world, the IDF announced Saturday evening that it would “increase” its strikes on the enclave from now on, in preparation for of the next phase of its offensive.
“As of today (Saturday) we will increase the strikes (…),” indicated General Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the Israeli army.
“We are going to enter the next phases of the war in the conditions that will be optimal for us, not according to what we can be told,” he added during a press conference broadcast live on television.
General Hagari also confirmed the presence of at least 210 hostages in the Gaza Strip, most of them Israelis.
Earlier on Saturday, several Israeli army officials visited troops on the front lines, emphasizing the armed forces’ preparation for a possible ground intervention in the Gaza Strip.
“We are going to enter Gaza, we are going to do it for an operational purpose, destroy the infrastructure and the Hamas terrorists and we are going to do it in a professional manner,” the chief of staff said during a troop review. Herzi Halevi.
“Gaza is complex, Gaza is densely populated, the enemy is preparing a lot of things there, but we are also preparing for him,” warned the senior officer. “And we will keep in mind the photographs and images, as well as the deaths of two weeks ago.”
4,385 dead in Gaza
In the days following the Hamas attack on October 7, the Israeli government suggested that a ground operation in the enclave was inevitable.
More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel by Hamas fighters since October 7, the majority of them civilians who were shot, burned alive or died of mutilation on the day of the attack carried out from the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli authorities. It was the deadliest attack since the creation of Israel in 1948.
In the Gaza Strip, shelled daily in retaliation for the assault carried out by Islamist fighters, at least 4,385 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the bombings, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
It is the deadliest Israeli military campaign against Gaza since Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the territory in 2005 after 38 years of occupation.
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