Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hours after forming an emergency government and wartime cabinet, foreshadowed a major ground attack on Gaza by promising to destroy Hamas.
“Every Hamas terrorist is a dead man,” Netanyahu declared during a late-night briefing, standing alongside Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, the leader of an opposition party.
In the aftermath of the deadliest attack on Israel in five decades by the Palestinian military group, both sides are bracing for a violent showdown, with Israeli forces amassing along the Gaza border.
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The fate of numerous hostages seized by Hamas over the weekend hangs in the balance. “There is a time for war and a time for peace,” Gantz remarked. “Now is the time for war.” Using the most forceful language of the three, Gallant asserted, “We will eradicate them completely from the face of the Earth.”
Their tone suggests that Israel may be in the final stages of preparing for what officials believe could be an invasion of the narrow strip of land, sandwiched between Israel and Egypt, that has been under Hamas control.
The statements indicate that the impending offensive could surpass the events of 2014, when Israeli forces entered and resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 Gazans. Officials assert that the circumstances are markedly different this time, given the unprecedented scale of the Hamas attack, which claimed the lives of at least 1,200 Israelis.
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Retaliatory strikes in Gaza have led to the deaths of over 1,000 Palestinians. Hamas, officially designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. and the European Union, currently holds an unspecified number of Israeli hostages.
The recent rhetoric implies that Israel is likely not waiting to ensure the hostages’ safety before taking action, despite Hamas’s threats to begin executing hostages. “This is not the moment for difficult questions,” Gantz emphasized. “This is the moment for resounding responses on the battlefield.”
The Israel Defense Forces are prioritizing strikes on Hamas commanders and officials, as well as its intelligence and financial infrastructure within the Gaza Strip, as stated by spokesman Jonathan Conricus in a video briefing on the X social media platform.