by Paul Joseph Watson, Summit News:
Update (1835ET): Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned residents of Gaza to “leave now, because we will operate forcefully everywhere.”
Hamas wants to murder us all. This is an enemy that murders children and mothers in their homes, in their beds, an enemy that abducts the elderly, children and young women, that slaughters and massacres our citizens, including children, who simply went out to enjoy the holiday.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening:
“This morning, on Shabbat and a holiday, Hamas invaded Israeli territory and murdered innocent citizens including children and the elderly. Hamas has started a brutal and evil war.” pic.twitter.com/ckPXuXNHk0
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 7, 2023
What happened today is unprecedented in Israel – and I will see to it that it does not happen again. The entire government is behind this decision.
The IDF will immediately use all its strength to destroy Hamas’s capabilities. We will destroy them and will forcefully avenge this dark day that they have forced on Israel and its citizens. As Bialik wrote: ‘Revenge for the blood of a little child has yet been devised by Satan’.
All of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble.
I say to the residents of Gaza: Leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere.
At this hour, the IDF is clearing the terrorists out of the last communities. They are going community by community, house by house, and are restoring our control.
I embrace and send heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families whose loved ones were murdered today in cold blood and endless brutality.
We are all praying for the well-being of the wounded and all those who are being held hostage. I say to Hamas: You are responsible for their well-being. Israel will settle accounts with anyone who harms one hair on their heads.
I appeal to the residents of the south: We all stand alongside you. We are all proud of your heroism and your fighting.
To our beloved IDF soldiers, police officers and security forces personnel, remember that you are the continuation of the heroes of the Jewish people, of Joshua, Judah Maccabee and the heroes of 1948 and of all of Israel’s wars.
You are now fighting for the home and future of us all. We are all with you. We all love you. We all salute you.
To the medical and rescue teams, and the many volunteers in a long list of places, the people of Israel salute you. With your spirit, we will overcome our enemies.
* * *
Update(1430ET): Former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) international spokesperson Jonathan Conricus has summed up what this day means for Israel, calling in the country’s “Pearl Harbor” moment.
“The entire system failed. It’s not just one component. It’s the entire defense architecture that evidently failed to provide the necessary defense for Israeli civilians,” he told CNN of the surprise invasion from Gaza militants. “This is a Pearl Harbor type of moment for Israel, where there was reality up until today, and then there will be reality after today.”
Town-by-town and farm-by-farm fighting is still underway given Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) reportedly control swathes of southern territory and even military outposts in Israel.
Netanyahu and his cabinet now must be contemplating what will surely be a high-risk rescue operation and potential ground incursion.
