ShareJERUSALEM: The Zionist entity imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip Monday and cut off the water supply as it kept bombing targets in the crowded Palestinian enclave in response to the Hamas surprise assault it has likened to the 9/11 attacks. Reeling from the Islamist group’s unprecedented ground, air and sea attacks, the Zionist entity has counted over 700 dead and launched a withering barrage of strikes on Gaza that have raised the death toll there to 560 people.
Kuwait’s Cabinet reviewed a foreign ministry statement that expressed concern over the escalating violence in the Middle East, urging the international community to ensure the adequate protection of the Palestinians in the face of continued Zionist entity’s aggression. The Cabinet underlined Kuwait’s solidarity with the Palestinian people and the country’s unwavering support for their aspirations of statehood based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent Palestinian state.
Kuwait’s ministry of awqaf and Islamic affairs instructed imams of local mosques to pray for the Palestinian people during daily prayers. “The recent developments and current events in Gaza and the occupied territories require that we pray to Allah Almighty for the protection of the Palestinian people and for their victory against the Zionist occupation and its practices,” the ministry said in a circular on Monday.
Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) launched Monday a donations campaign “Aid Palestine” aimed at supporting the Palestinian people and providing them with the necessary relief and medical provisions. KRCS Chairman Dr Hilal Al-Sayer said the campaign to provide hospitals with necessities to treat the wounded, is driven by KRCS’ national and humanitarian sense of duty to the Palestinian cause.
Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened that “what Hamas will experience will be difficult and terrible ... We are going to change the Middle East”. The skies over Gaza were blackened by plumes of smoke from deafening explosions as Hamas kept launching rockets as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where missile defense systems fired and air raid sirens blared. Hamas — whose militants surged into Zionist towns on Saturday, spraying gunfire and dragging off about 100 prisoners of war — claimed on Monday that Zionist air strikes had killed four of the captives. Hamas threatened Monday to kill hostages if the Zionist army carried out air strikes without prior warning targeting residents of the Gaza Strip.
"Every targeting of our people without warning will be met with the execution of one of the civilian hostages," the Ezzedine al-Qassem Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a statement. The Zionist entity said it had called up 300,000 army reservists for its “Swords of Iron” campaign, and truck convoys were moving tanks to the south, where its forces had dislodged the last holdout Hamas fighters from embattled towns. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the Zionist entity would impose a “complete siege” on the long blockaded enclave and stressed what this meant for its 2.3 million people: “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas — it’s all closed.”
Palestinians in the impoverished coastal territory braced for what many feared will be a massive Zionist ground attack aiming to defeat Hamas and liberate the hostages. Netanyahu has warned Gaza civilians to get away from all Hamas sites, which he vowed to turn “to rubble”. Middle East tensions have spiked as the Zionist entity’s arch enemy Iran and their Lebanese ally Hezbollah have praised the Hamas attack, although Tehran rejected any role in the military operation. Hamas has called on “resistance fighters” in the occupied West Bank and in Arab and Islamic nations to join its “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”, launched half a century after the 1973 Arab-Zionist war.
“The military operation is still continuing,” Hossam Badran, a Hamas official, told AFP from Doha, adding that “there is currently no chance for negotiation on the issue of prisoners or anything else”. The United States has pledged “rock solid” support for the Zionist entity and said it would send munitions and military hardware to its key ally and divert an aircraft carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean. The Zionist entity, which has long prided itself on a high-tech military and intelligence edge in its many conflicts, has been shaken to the core by Hamas’ unprecedented attack.
It now faces the threat of a multi-front war after Hezbollah launched guided missiles and artillery shells from the north on Sunday “in solidarity” with Hamas, in what some observers considered a warning shot. On Monday, the Zionist army said its soldiers had “killed a number of armed suspects” who had crossed the border from Lebanon and that Zionist helicopters were striking targets in the area. The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad later claimed responsibility for the thwarted infiltration from Lebanon to the Zionist entity. Hezbollah said a Zionist strike on a south Lebanon watchtower killed one of its members.
The Zionist entity has expressed alarm and revulsion at the Hamas attack across the Gaza border fence — long deemed impregnable and guarded by surveillance cameras, drones, patrols and watchtowers — and the bloody violence they unleashed. Up to 250 bodies were strewn across the site of a music festival in a Negev desert kibbutz, mostly young people, and charred car wrecks were piled up in a sign of the panicked rush to escape, while other revelers were feared to be among the hostages. Zionists have voiced anger at the intelligence failure that blindsided the nation on a Jewish holiday.
“Never before have so many (Zionists) been killed by one single thing, let alone enemy activity in one day,” said army spokesman Jonathan Conricus. The situation was also dire inside Gaza, which has been blockaded by the Zionist entity since Hamas assumed control there 15 years ago, a period that has seen four wars with the Zionist entity before the latest escalation. Air strikes have wrought widespread destruction in Gaza’s refugee camp of Jabalia, where charred bodies were pulled from the rubble and relatives wailed in grief. Earlier strikes have levelled residential tower blocks, a large mosque and the territory’s major bank building.
More than 120,000 people in Gaza have been displaced amid the carnage, said the United Nations. “The situation is unbearable,” said Amal Al-Sarsawi, 37, as she took shelter in a school classroom with her terrified children. Minors in war zone have felt their sense of safety “ripped away” said Jason Lee of charity group Save the Children. “Our teams and their families are terrified, they feel like sitting targets. Children across the region are in constant fear.” Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have rallied in support and clashed with Zionist security forces, leaving 15 Palestinians dead since Saturday.
Anti-Zionist activists have demonstrated in many countries while security was stepped up around Jewish temples and school worldwide. The spiraling conflict has sent shock waves around the world amid fears of a wider escalation, sparking a surge in oil prices on fears of tightening supplies. Western capitals have condemned the attack by Hamas, which the United States and European Union consider a terrorist group. The EU has halted development aid payments to the Palestinians and said it was placing €691 million of support “under review”.
Foreign or dual nationals have been reported killed, abducted or missing by countries including Brazil, Britain, Cambodia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Nepal, Panama, Paraguay, Thailand, Ukraine and the United States. The Zionist entity issued a travel warning for its citizens, especially in the Middle East, after an Egyptian police officer shot dead two Zionist tourists Sunday. The Arab League said its foreign ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday to discuss “(Zionist) aggression on the Gaza Strip”. – Agencies
