Hamas has taken dozens of Israeli hostages, including women and children, civilians and military personnel, to Gaza, which will complicate Israel’s response.
Social media and Israeli television have been filled with reports of distraught family members fearing for loved ones kidnapped by gunmen in their homes, fearing they could be used as bargaining chips to trade Palestinian prisoners or thwart Israeli ground attacks.
The attack, the most dangerous escalation in the conflict in decades, came almost exactly 50 years after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and also surprised Israel with raids by neighbors Egypt and Syria.
Clashes in the north on Sunday heightened fears of a wider conflict, with Israel fighting Hezbollah militants on the Lebanese border and in Egypt an Egyptian citizen opened fire on a group of two Israelis and their The guide was killed. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the number of tourists in Alexandria.
Israel once again appeared to be caught off guard by a coordinated attack, raising questions about why Israel and the United States’ vaunted intelligence agencies failed to sound the alarm.
Bracha Yarkoni, 75, watched as his home in the southern coastal city of Ashkelon came under a direct rocket attack.Already woke up on her birthday She watched from the street as the missiles hit, accompanied by explosions and the cries of her grandchildren. “God help us,” she said.
US President Joe Biden joined world leaders in condemning the attack and declared his administration’s “rock-solid and unwavering support for Israel’s security”.
Fierce fighting in the Middle East will test his foreign policy proposition for re-election in 2024.
Israel’s nationalist government — stung by having presided over this national trauma — and Palestinian despair suffocated by years of blockade of Gaza and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank will make the situation even more unstable.
