The death toll from the war launched against Israel on Saturday by Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization reached more than 1,000 by 5 pm Tuesday, day four of Operation Iron Swords.
The Israel Defense Forces said control was restored over the dozens of Jewish communities along the Gaza border, albeit at a high price and with individual terrorists still roaming the area.
Mop-up operations are continuing, even as Hamas forces persist launching massive rocket barrages at the Jewish State.
As promised by the terrorist organization, the southern coastal city of Ashkelon came under a particularly heavy, 10-minute barrage of rocket fire at 5 pm Tuesday. Rocket fire was also directed for the first time at communities in northern Samaria, and Red Alert sirens activated in northern Israel as well.
Israeli forces are mining the multiple breaches in the security fence through which the terrorists rode motorcycles, pickup trucks and other vehicles in the invasion of southern Israel.
Thus far, the bodies of 1,500 terrorists have been recovered by IDF soldiers as the military continues to notify relatives of those who were murdered or dragged away back through the fence to become captives of Hamas.
Israel’s security cabinet has approved the mobilization of another 60,000 reservists in addition to the 300,000 already called up. Multiple IDF divisions are already massing along the Gaza border.
IDF naval fighters are continuing to fire at terrorist positions in the enclave and at individual operatives attempting to return through the security barrier. Israel Air Force aircraft are continuing to pound hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist positions in Gaza as well.
Meanwhile, more than 100 Israelis and other nationals remain captives of Hamas in Gaza, having been dragged across the border into Gaza by terrorists on Saturday.
Israeli security officials made another horrific discovery on Monday: the bodies of at least 100 residents of Kibbutz Be’eri, who died at the hands of the Hamas terrorists who invaded their community.
This comes in addition to the bodies of the 270 young people who were executed in cold blood by Hamas terrorists as they celebrated early Saturday at a music festival dedicated to peace. Hundreds more were wounded by terrorist gunfire, and many others were dragged across the border as hostages.
“Twenty young people forced themselves into a huge trash bin at that festival, desperately trying to hide from the terrorists,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told reporters Monday night at a news briefing. “The terrorists hurled a grenade into the bin, and then shot those who survived, one by one, like Nazis or ISIS.”
Cohen echoed the words of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, all of whom pledged that “what was, will never be again.”
The foreign minister declared, “We will do whatever it takes to regain our security and destroy the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza. What happened in the past will not happen in the future again. This is a new reality.”
