Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz jointly announced Wednesday that Israel has formed an emergency government and that Gantz will join Netanyahu and current defense minister Yoav Gallant in a wartime cabinet.
This from redstate.com.
The new emergency government comes after the horrific terror attacks by Hamas over the weekend which left at least 1,200 dead, including at least 22 Americans.
Netanyahu took to the social media platform X to say that the Israeli people are united despite the horror attacks:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at a joint statement with Defense Minister Yoav Galant and National Unity Chairman MK Benny Gantz:
"Citizens of Israel, this evening we have formed a national emergency government. The people are united and today its leadership is also united. pic.twitter.com/0ffZ8CxTEI
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 11, 2023
The new arrangement strengthens the nation’s war footing and makes it clear that fighting Hamas will be its priority. The government won’t pass any laws or make any decisions that do not concern the war, the announcement said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel formed an emergency government on Wednesday, adding two opposition lawmakers—both former army chiefs—to his cabinet. Analysts said the infusion of military expertise would give the government greater legitimacy to make tough wartime decisions, including whether to invade Gaza, or even southern Lebanon.
The arrangement came as the devastation of the Hamas incursion over the weekend was becoming clear: bodies in the streets, people shot dead at a bus stop, bullet holes in residential walls. Israel said the death toll in the attack had risen to 1,200, with an estimated 150 people believed to be held hostage in Gaza.
Israel is already striking back and has been hitting Gaza hard.
Israel has ordered a “complete siege” on the enclave, including halting supplies of electricity, food, water and fuel. On Wednesday, Gaza’s only power station stopped working after running out of fuel, the head of the Gaza power authority Galal Ismail told CNN.
People are still able to use power generators, Ismail said, but with a blockade on all sides of the border, the fuel needed for the generators to work is running out.
Netanyahu and Gantz, a former defense minister, angrily decried the terror attacks and vowed retaliation.
Gantz said during the televised address:
There is time for war and time for peace. This, now, is the time for war.
Netanyahu said:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel did not mince words at a news conference with Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister and Benny Gantz, a political rival who joined in a national unity government today.
Further said by Netanyahu:
Every Hamas member is a dead man.
He promised to:
[C]rush and eliminate the group.
He also listed some of the atrocities he said Hamas terrorists had committed:
Boys and girls had been found shot in the head.
People had been burned alive, women had been raped
and killed, and soldiers had been beheaded.
🚨BREAKING: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu: “Every Hamas operative will die. Hamas is ISIS. We will crush them and get rid of them, just as the world crushed and got rid of ISIS”pic.twitter.com/gD5e2RMXbQ
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 11, 2023
The moment news of the Hamas attacks first broke, observers knew it was going to have a huge impact on geopolitics. Israeli leaders are clearly outraged and are taking dramatic action. The questions now become, how long will this war last, and will other countries like the U.S. get drawn into it?
Earlier in the day, Benjamin Netanyahu had said that:
Every Hamas operative will die. Hamas is ISIS. We will crush them and get rid of them, just as the world crushed and got rid of ISIS.
🚨BREAKING: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu: “Every Hamas operative will die. Hamas is ISIS. We will crush them and get rid of them, just as the world crushed and got rid of ISIS”pic.twitter.com/gD5e2RMXbQ
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 11, 2023
As of late Wednesday, there have been 22 Americans identified as victims of Hamas. Others are missing. The total death toll already is in the thousands.
It was reported earlier that Hamas tore through the Israeli countryside, gunning down whole families in their beds, slaughtering anyone in their path, including babies—dead by beheading. Hamas also burned families alive.
One kibbutz was spared when a security officer, hearing approaching explosions, rallied others from the community, handed out rifles and set up sniper positions, picking off 25 Hamas terrorists before the rest fled.
The Daily Mail said:
Hamas still was pursuing death and destruction for the most innocent, with a rocket blast on Wednesday that hit the children’s wing of a hospital.
Netanyahu also released horrifying images of Hamas’ depraved attack:
[A] blood-soaked child’s bed.
The report confirmed:
Shocking footage from the southern city of Ashkelon shows the Barzilai Medical Centre in ruins with the children’s wing taking a direct hit.
Pictures also show the remains of a supermarket in the city, surrounded by debris and marked by a large crater.
Meanwhile, airstrikes by the IDF destroyed entire Palestinian neighborhoods where Hamas interests were located.
Israeli defense officials said:
Gaza, the home territory for Hamas, soon will be a tent city.
Israeli officials already have been notifying residents close to the border with Gaza to remain in shelters.
Israel also is dispatching infantry units and armored vehicles into Gaza, and has put 300,000 reservists close by to join the mission.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said he has lifted “all restraints” on Israeli troops defending their nation against the Hamas attackers.
He said:
Hamas wanted a change and it will get one.
What was in Gaza will no longer be.
Gallant also warned:
Whoever comes to decapitate, murder women,
Holocaust survivors—we will eliminate him
at the height of our power and without compromise.
God speed.