Israel formally declared war on Hamas on Sunday, setting the stage for a major military operation in Gaza as fighting rages on Israeli soil. The declaration comes after Hamas, an Islamist militant group, launched a surprise assault this weekend that has so far killed over 600 Israelis.

Saturday was the deadliest day in decades for Israel and came after months of surging violence between Palestinians and Israelis, with the long-running conflict now heading into uncharted and dangerous new territory. Questions remain over how the Israeli military and intelligence apparatus appeared to be caught off guard in one of the country’s worst security failures.

Over 400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as Israel responds with airstrikes in the densely-inhabited enclave. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed retaliation, warning his country would take “mighty vengeance” and was readying for “a long and difficult war.”

He urged Palestinians living in Gaza to “leave now.”

  • Eheran@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    So they can/could leave Gaza? People often say they can not just leave Gaza due to checkpoints and what not?

    • Riccosuave@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Netanyahu is saying that for show. It gives the Israeli government a blanket justification to ignore any collateral damage caused in this conflict because they will just claim that they warned them to leave.

      Does anybody really believe that the insanely sophisticated security apparatus of Mossad didn’t know these attacks were coming in advance? This has the same stink of the Bush administration ignoring repeated warnings of attacks by Al Qaeda pre-9/11 to justify war in the middle east all over again.

      • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There’s going to be some warcrimes coming. I’m not looking forward to this, nor am I looking forward to the increase of Nazis and Communists using this as justification to tar all Jewish people as evil.

        • Riccosuave@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          My thoughts exactly. The reality of sectarian violence (whether it be ethnic or religious in nature) is the justification of more atrocities. Hurt people hurt people, and the historically oppressed can sometimes find themselves becoming the most effective oppressors. It’s all bad, it’s all sad, and it’s all a reflection on the failures of humanity in extending the saber far more often than the olive branch…

          • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Not really. The Communists were quite happy to play into antisemitism and even encouraged it painting all Jewish people as bourgeois elites.

            https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_the_Soviet_Union

            I’m already seeing users from .grad and .ml defending Hamas’ actions.

            Doesn’t matter if left, right, religious, secular, whatever, fascists who think any means justify the ends of the “perfect” state are an ideological cancer and therefore should not be tolerated in a tolerant society.

      • QHC@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This is standard policy for Israel, the same entity that pretends giving people a ‘warning’ before blowing up their home is a good enough excuse.

        • flossdaily@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          What a stupid take.

          Israel goes out of us way to destroy terrorist INFRASTRUCTURE instead of people, and you whine about it like it’s a bad thing?

          If some organization thought my home was an enemy base, and sent me an SMS message to give me enough time to get my kids out, I’d be pissed about the house, but my family would be alive.

          Compare that to Hamas who deliberately target civilians.

    • jscummy@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      There are multiple cities in the Gaza Strip, the largest being Gaza City. They can leave Gaza City to another city in Palestinian territory but can’t cross the border into Israel/Egypt.

        • jscummy@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I’m not sure what you mean by that, the West Bank is on the other side of the country

          Edit: Nevermind, I get it. I’m really not sure, I guess Egypt/Jordan could facilitate people moving from Gaza to the West Bank