Israel vows to root out Hamas completely
Members of the Palestinian Civil Defense search for people trapped under the rubble of a house destroyed by Israeli forces on Saturday in Gaza City, Gaza.
Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
Israel will “reach into every place Hamas is hiding” and turn those locations into ruins, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed in a late-night TV address. Israel’s military is calling up reservist soldiers, reinforcing positions and launching airstrikes on targets in Gaza.
Hamas, the Islamist militant group, took control of Gaza in 2007.
Anyone in areas where Hamas operates in the Gaza Strip should “leave those places now,” Netanyahu said. He added, “Israel will settle the score with anyone who harms them.”
But for some 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza, leaving Hamas-linked areas isn’t so simple. For more than 16 years, the Gaza Strip has been under a blockade by Israel and Egypt that restricts the movement of people and goods in and out of the country.
Israeli airstrikes hit central Gaza City Saturday night, leveling a 14-story building that housed Hamas offices, as well as apartments, according to The Associated Press. The agency reports that Israel gave warning of the airstrike, and no casualties were reported.
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“We are at war,” Netanyahu said early Saturday, in a video statement in front of Israel’s military headquarters. He vowed to exact an “immense price from the enemy.”
Netanyahu’s office says his security cabinet met and decided to shut off electricity and gas Israel supplies to Gaza and to block the import and export of goods through Israel’s border crossing.
In Gaza City, morgues and hospitals overflowed with families seeking news about their relatives. The streets were dark Saturday night.
Local humanitarian worker Yousef Hammash, associated with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Gaza, talked to NPR from Jabalia Refugee Camp. “We are now entirely unprepared and uncertain about how we could continue our humanitarian work the next day with a new contingency plan,” he said, as the sound of bombardments echoed from his phone. read more