Israel launched an “extensive attack” on the Gaza Strip overnight on Wednesday, the country’s air force confirmed – hours after the defense minister vowed to “wipe Hamas off the face of the earth”.
Over the past five days, Israeli warplanes have pounded the blockaded strip with an intensity its war-weary residents have never experienced.
The Israeli Air Force has shared footage of a building in Gaza it says belonged to Hamas being destroyed from the air.
They insist they attack Hamas targets in the enclave, and try to avoid civilian casualties: critics say this is impossible in the densely populated area.
In the early hours of Thursday, the Air Force tweeted: ‘The IDF is now launching an extensive attack on many centers of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip.’
An IDF soldier covers his ears as a shell is fired into Gaza on Wednesday
An Israeli army flare lights up the sky above the northern Gaza Strip on Friday
A senior Air Force officer, Brig. General Omer Tishler, said on Wednesday that the strikes were on an ‘unprecedented scale’.
He said Israel has focused its efforts on targeting Hamas officials and preventing them from ever attacking Israel again.
Hamas launched volleys of rockets as its onslaught began on Saturday and has continued to fire rockets into Israeli cities, including at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, over the past five days.
The violence killed 1,200 Israelis – many of them at a music festival, or living in small farming and artistic communities near the Gaza Strip.
Tishler, the Israeli Air Force chief of staff, said: ‘Here is an enemy firing rockets and attacking a civilian population. We will never allow this again.’
Terrorist groups have fired more than 5,000 rockets at Israel since Saturday, the IDF said.
Tishler said that the IAF was not targeting civilians in the Gaza Strip, but that the strikes were no longer “surgical”.
‘We don’t act like the other side, we don’t attack the civilian population. Behind every attack there is a target,” he said.
‘We act precisely and professionally, but not surgically. I’m not talking about singles, tens or hundreds (strikes). We’re talking about thousands of rounds of ammunition.’
The IDF has carried out strikes against at least 2,687 targets across the Gaza Strip since Saturday, according to Wednesday morning military data obtained by The Times of Israel.
In just one hour overnight on Tuesday, 250 strikes were launched.
Almost half of the strikes – 1,329 – were aimed at multi-storey buildings containing Hamas assets, including war rooms where the terror group conducts the fighting against Israel, the newspaper reported.
Rockets fired from Gaza City (R) are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system (L) on Tuesday
Smoke billows during Israeli attacks on Gaza City on Tuesday
Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the IDF, is seen giving an update in the early hours of Thursday
The Gaza City district of at-Tuffah, described as a ‘nest’ of terrorists, has been repeatedly targeted, as has the Beit Hanoun district in the northern Gaza Strip.
Dozens of fighter jets carried out the strikes against the targets in the north – including two bank branches used by Hamas, an underground tunnel, several war rooms and other military installations, the IDF said.
The attack is widely seen as paving the way for a ground invasion.
An Egyptian official told The Times of Israel Tuesday that Cairo was informed by Israel that it was ready for a months-long campaign in Gaza.
Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the IDF, said in the early hours of Thursday that there are 300,000 troops on the border with Gaza, who are ‘making preparations for the next phase’.
The 300,000 included regular forces and reservists: Israel mobilized its largest contingent of reservists in its history.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, declared on Wednesday evening that the country is determined to ‘wipe Hamas off the face of the earth’.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, vowed in the same press conference to ‘crush and destroy’ Hamas.
“Every Hamas member is a dead man,” he said in a televised address.
Displaced Palestinians are pictured on Wednesday after intensive Israeli raids in the al-Karama district in northwestern Gaza
A boy walks past buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Wednesday
The overthrow of Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, will likely require Gaza to be reoccupied, at least temporarily.
Even then, Hamas has a long history of operating as an underground insurgency in areas controlled by Israel.
The situation in Gaza has long been dire, but Israel’s response to Hamas’ attacks has only worsened the situation.
There is no clean water and no power: the area’s only power plant ran out of fuel on Wednesday, leaving only generators that will not last long. Aid agencies are appealing for civilians to be allowed to leave, warning of a dire humanitarian situation.
On Monday, Israel stopped the access of food, water, fuel and medicine to the area.
The only remaining crossing from Egypt was closed on Tuesday after airstrikes hit nearby.
The risk of the war spreading was evident on Wednesday after the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli military position, claiming to have killed and wounded troops.
The Israeli military confirmed the attack but did not comment on possible casualties.
The Israeli army shelled the area in southern Lebanon where the attack was launched.
Joe Biden called Saturday’s Hamas attack “the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.”
US President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, makes remarks after speaking by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This attack was a campaign of pure cruelty, not just hate, but pure cruelty against the Jewish people,” Biden said during a meeting with Jewish community leaders at the White House.
On Tuesday, he warned other countries and armed groups against the war.
The US is already rushing ammunition and military equipment to Israel and has deployed a carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean as a deterrent.
At least 22 Americans are among the dead, and several are believed to be among 150 missing, possibly being held hostage.
Hamas has threatened to publicly execute them if Israel continues to strike Gaza.
Biden said he had one word for any country considering taking advantage of the chaos: “Don’t.”
He promised that America would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.
The country is facing unrest from all sides.
Israeli settlers attacked a village south of Nablus in the West Bank on Wednesday, opening fire on Palestinians and killing three, the area’s health ministry said.
More than two dozen Palestinians have been killed in fighting in the West Bank since the weekend.