The Israeli war machine – all prepared for ground assault of Gaza

The Israeli war machine: IDF is equipped with 300 tanks, 600 warplanes and 173,000 troops backed by 300,000 reservists – all prepared for massive ground assault of Gaza

•  Israeli forces have already used its fleet of 600 planes and 300 rocket launchers to relentlessly pound the Gaza Strip, with strikes obliterating thousands targets
• Israel Palestine news LIVE: Follow here for the latest updates on the conflict 

Israel is drawing on its huge military might – including thousands of tanks, warplanes and troops – to obliterate Hamas after the terrorists launched their ruthless attacks this weekend that has killed more than 1,300 Israelis. 

Israeli forces have already used their strike force of 600 planes and 300 rocket launchers to relentlessly pound the Gaza Strip, with airstrikes and artillery destroying thousands of targets belonging to Hamas and killing 1,530 Palestinians after their neighbourhoods were obliterated. 

And the ruthless onslaught won’t stop there, with Israel’s 173,000 soldiers, backed by 300,000 reservists, vying for the opportunity to kill Hamas terrorists who massacred 1,300 Israelis – either in their homes as they begged for their lives or while they fled a music festival.

This huge force, along with 300 military tanks including self-propelled howitzers, are now preparing to launch a huge co-ordinated ground assault that will likely bring higher casualties on either side in fierce house-to-house fighting. 

This morning, Israel ordered 1.1 million civilians to evacuate northern Gaza within 24 hours ahead of the highly expected ground offensive aimed at eradicating Hamas. 

The order sent panic through civilians and aid workers already struggling under Israeli airstrikes and a blockade, while the United Nations called such an evacuation ‘impossible’ that would turn an tragedy into calamity.

Israel’s military might is far superior to that of the Hamas terrorists, who currently only possess around 10,000 rockets that had been built up in secret. 

Israel is drawing on its huge military might – including thousands of tanks, warplanes and troops – to obliterate Hamas after the terrorists launched their ruthless attacks this weekend that has killed more than 1,300 Israelis

Israeli heavy armed vehicles move near Gaza border as Israeli army deploys military vehicles around the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground offensive on Thursday

Israeli tanks move near Gaza border as Israeli army deploys military vehicles around the Gaza Strip on Thursday

Israeli soldiers patrol on Thursday near Kibbutz Beeri, the place where 270 revellers were killed by Hamas militants during the Supernova music festival

A Palestinian man runs amid the rubble of a building hit in an Israeli air strike on Friday

Palestinians search for casualties under the rubble in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday

On top of the 173,000 active Israeli soldiers, Israel has today drafted in a record 300,000 reservists in its response to a multi-front Hamas attack from Gaza and is ‘going on the offensive,’ the chief military spokesperson said.

Israel is also drawing on its special forces from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit to fight against Hamas. It is believed that they will be aiming to take out those high-ranking fighters within the terrorist organisation and also rescue the hundreds of Israelis who have been taken hostage. 

Israel’s Defence Forces have said they want to completely strip Hamas of its power to govern in Palestine after what has been described as the country’s ‘worst day in history’ with the number of Israeli’s killed in the conflict set to rise further. 

In response to the barbaric attacks, which has seen 1,300 Israelis massacred including pregnant women and children, Israel has launched a relentless barrage of airstrikes that have obliterated entire neighbourhoods in Gaza and killed 1,530 Palestinians. 

The Israeli airstrikes have so far flattened much of the town of Beit Hanoun in the Palestinian enclave’s north-east corner, which Hamas terrorists had been using as a staging ground for their attacks. 

And in a sign that Israel has no notion of stopping its airstrikes, the IDF today issued an evacuation order directly on Friday morning, telling the 1.1 million people living north of an area called Wadi Gaza to move south. This would mean the entire population of Gaza City and its surroundings fleeing their homes.

The UN says it is impossible to move that many people without devastating humanitarian consequences, and has urged Israel to rescind the order.

The Gaza Strip, home to 2.3million civilians, has so far been bombarded by approximately 6,000 bombs containing a total of 4,000 tonnes of explosives since Saturday when it began striking Hamas targets, the Israeli army said yesterday. 

But Palestinians are preparing for a ground offensive of unprecedented scale on the tiny, crowded enclave, exceeding previous bouts of destructive warfare. 

Israel has ordered more than one million people to evacuate northern Gaza within 24 hours ahead of a feared Israeli ground offensive aimed at eradicating Hamas

The order sent panic through civilians and aid workers already struggling under Israeli airstrikes and a blockade, while the United Nations called such an evacuation ‘impossible’ that would turn an tragedy into calamity. Pictured: Children are seen in a Gaza City hospital

Palestinians with their belongings flee to safer areas in Gaza City after Israeli air strikes on Friday

Palestinians carrying their belongings flee to safer areas in Gaza City after Israeli air strikes on Friday 

Palestinians search for casualties under the rubble in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday 

Aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday 

Palestinians search for casualties under the rubble in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday 

 Palestinians search for casualties under the rubble in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday

The Israeli military had said it would operate with ‘significant force’ in Gaza in the coming days amid fears of a huge ground offensive. Spokesman Jonathan Conricus said Israeli forces ‘will make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians’.

He added: ‘Out of an understanding that there are civilians here who are not our enemy and we do not want to target them, we are asking them to evacuate.’

But the UN has said it is impossible to move that many people without devastating humanitarian consequences, and has urged Israel to rescind the order.

Suffering in Gaza has been rising dramatically with Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine and the territory’s only power plant shut down for lack of fuel. The morgue at Gaza’s biggest hospital overflowed as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them.

Meanwhile, a Hamas official called the evacuation order ‘fake propaganda’, urged Palestinians to stay in their homes and not to ‘fall for it’. 

The Hamas Authority for Refugee Affairs called on residents of the north of the territory to ‘remain steadfast in your homes and to stand firm in the face of this disgusting psychological war waged by the occupation’.

The flurry of directives was taken as signalling an already expected Israeli ground offensive, though the Israeli military has not yet confirmed such a decision.

On Thursday it said that while it was preparing, no official decision has been made.

Any ground offensive would be the strongest response yet to Hamas’ shock assault, and would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal guerrilla warfare as Israeli soldiers go house-to-house and hunt down Hamas terrorists.

‘This evacuation is for your own safety,’ the Israeli military said, in a warning it said was sent to all Gaza City civilians.

As Israel pounds Gaza from the air, Hamas militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, with attacks also coming from Hezbollah, in Lebanon to the north.

Amid concerns that the fighting could spread in the region, Syrian state media reported Israeli airstrikes on Thursday put two Syrian airports out of service.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to ‘crush’ Hamas after the militants stormed into the country’s south on Saturday and massacred hundreds of people, including killings of children in their homes and young people at a music festival.

Israeli tanks head towards the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel on Thursday

The body of a Palestinian killed during Israeli air strikes is carried in a sheet on Thursday

‘Every Hamas member is a dead man,’ the Israeli Prime Minister said menacingly in a televised address late last night, perhaps revealing the scale of the ground assault operation for which his Defence Forces are preparing as they encircle Gaza.

Amid grief and demands for vengeance among the Israeli public, the government is under intense pressure to topple Hamas rather than continuing to try to bottle it up in Gaza. However, the civilian toll is mounting.

Inas Hamdan, an officer at the UN Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza City, said the order had sparked more chaos in the Gaza Strip.

And the Red Cross yesterday warned hospitals in Gaza will ‘turn into morgues’ as the power begins to run out in the enclave where millions of Palestinians are stranded amid Israel’s total siege of the small strip of land.

With the power cut and fuel for generators blocked by Israeli forces, aid workers warned that hospitals in Gaza are ‘on the verge of collapse’ due to the lack of energy that is set to run out completely in the next few hours.

‘As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken,’ Fabrizio Carboni of the International Committee of the Red Cross said. 

‘Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues,’ Carboni said before adding: ‘The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent, and I implore the sides to reduce the suffering of civilians.’

His stark prediction came after Israel warned it wouldn’t let any food, medicine or electricity reach the 2.3million residents trapped in the Gaza Strip until Hamas terrorists release the scores of Israeli hostages they captured.

‘Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home,’ Israel’s Energy Minister Israel Katz vowed in a sinister threat. 

‘Humanitarian for humanitarian. And no one will preach us morals,’ Katz added. 

 Whilst Israel’s political leaders have not yet decided on whether to launch the ground assault on the terrorists, the army said they are preparing for such an offensive that will be aimed at ‘taking out ‘ the group’s senior leadership including top government officials.

Meanwhile, the airstrikes, which have killed more than 1,500 civilians in Gaza, and the total siege of the enclave has prompted the US to warn Israel to ‘uphold the laws of war’. 

US President Joe Biden said Israel had a right to respond to the attacks by Hamas terrorists, which has seen 1,300 Israelis massacred – shot dead in their homes as they begged for their lives or while they fled a music festival. But he warned that its retaliatory action must be ‘according to the rule of law’.

Yet Katz’s comments showed that there is no sign the total siege of Gaza, which has seen Israel cut off water, food and electricity to force its residents into starvation as they are pounded by constant airstrikes, will end any time soon given that Hamas has said it wouldn’t release its 97 hostages until the bombardment ends.

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