Israel announced the call-up of 300,000 fresh army reservists as fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in and around the Hamas-run Gaza Strip entered its third day.
“We have never drafted so many reservists on such a scale,” Daniel Hagari, chief spokesman for Israel’s military, said on Oct. 9.
“We are going on the offensive.”
The announcement came some 48 hours after the Gaza-based militant group Hamas launched a multi-pronged assault into Israeli territory that has reportedly left more than 800 Israelis—including civilians and military personnel—dead.
The initial assault by Hamas militants was accompanied by the launch of hundreds of rockets from Gaza into neighboring Israel.
On Oct. 8, CNN reported that at least three U.S. nationals were among those killed in the ongoing violence.
According to Israeli press reports, Hamas militants also succeeded in capturing more than 130 Israeli hostages, whom they presumably hope to exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli jails.
Since Hamas launched its surprise assault on the morning of Oct. 7, Israeli military aircraft have continued to pound the Gaza Strip, which is home to some 2 million Palestinians.
Since 2007, the small coastal enclave—roughly 225 square miles in size—has remained under a draconian blockade by both the Israeli and Egyptian authorities.
Palestinian Death Toll Tops 500
On Oct. 9, Gaza’s Hamas-backed health ministry said that more than 560 Palestinians had been killed and 2,800 injured by retaliatory strikes by Israel across the coastal strip. The Epoch Times cannot independently verify the figure.In past conflicts, some Palestinian deaths in Gaza have been attributed to Hamas rockets that fell short.
According to Gaza’s interior ministry, Israel has carried out “hundreds” of strikes on targets in Gaza, including residential buildings and public facilities.
The Israeli military confirmed that it had struck more than 500 targets linked to Hamas and the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad group in overnight raids.
At the same time, Israeli ground forces are struggling to reassert control over several Israeli border towns that were reportedly overrun by Hamas militants.
According to Mr. Hagari, Israeli forces have largely retaken most of these areas, although isolated clashes remain underway.
“We are now carrying out searches in all the communities and clearing the area,” the military spokesman said in a televised briefing.
In earlier remarks, Richard Hecht, another Israeli military spokesman, said that it was taking “more time than ... expected to get things back into a defensive, security posture.”
Deadliest Incursion in 50 Years
Hamas’s cross-border assault represents the deadliest incursion into Israel since 1973, when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on the country in an effort to recapture territory that was lost earlier.The unprecedented military call-up by Israel suggests that it may be preparing for a ground offensive into Gaza, although there have been no formal announcements to this effect.
In 2014, Israel carried out a massive, six-week assault on the Gaza Strip, which included a wide-ranging ground offensive involving hundreds of troops.
More than 2,000 Palestinians and scores of Israelis were killed in that conflict, which led to the collapse of U.S.-backed talks between Israel and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA).
US Pledges Support for Israel
According to the White House, President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington was stepping up its military assistance to Israel.On Oct. 8, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced plans to deploy U.S. military aircraft and naval vessels—including a carrier strike group—closer to Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean as a show of support.
In a statement, the Pentagon said the move was aimed at strengthening the U.S. military posture in the region “to bolster regional deterrence efforts.”
According to Mr. Austin, the United States also plans to provide extra munitions to Israel, which for decades has been a leading recipient of U.S. financial and military aid.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has described the cross-border assault by Hamas as a “terrorist attack by a terrorist organization.”
Speaking to CNN on Oct. 8, he suggested that the attack was meant to derail U.S.-backed efforts aimed at normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Like most Arab states, Saudi Arabia—a long-standing U.S. regional ally—doesn’t recognize Israel due to what it regards as the country’s harsh treatment of Palestinians.
No Proof of Iran Involvement
According to Mr. Blinken, the United States hasn’t seen any evidence of Iranian involvement in the cross-border assault on Israel.Long viewed as Israel’s arch-foe in the region, Iran openly supports both Hamas and Islamic Jihad and has praised the cross-border attack as a “legitimate defense of the Palestinian nation.”
In a statement released on Oct. 9, Tehran’s mission to the United Nations dismissed claims of Iranian involvement in the cross-border attack.
“We emphatically stand in unflinching support of Palestine,” the mission said in a statement carried by Iran’s Amwaj news agency.
However, it went on to assert that Iran was “not involved” in the Hamas operation, which it claimed was carried out “solely by Palestine.”
Hamas says the deadly attack was a response to Israel’s harsh treatment of Palestinians in the PA-administered West Bank and its 16-year-old blockade of Gaza.
The militant group also says the attack, which it has dubbed “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” was a response to recent incursions by Jewish settlers into Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Muslims regard the Al-Aqsa Mosque as the world’s third holiest site after the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina.
On the afternoon of Oct. 9, Lebanese media reported that Israeli forces had exchanged gunfire with Hezbollah militants near Lebanon’s border with Israel.
