Israel’s retribution against Hamas terrorists have begun. The entire border between Israel proper and the Gaza Strip has been locked down by Tsahal.
Israeli forces are already hitting targets in Gaza itself. Ground combat is mostly mopping up Hamas fighters in border towns. The New York Times reports:
Israel’s defense minister ordered a “complete siege” of the long-blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday, as its forces battled Palestinian militants in border towns for a third day and launched retaliatory strikes that hit a mosque and a marketplace in Gaza.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel” would be allowed into Gaza, in effect cutting off a crowded coastal territory already under a 16-year blockade and where militants are holding at least 150 Israelis hostage.
It is unsure whether Israel will invade the Gaza Strip or simply siege it down while bombing it. The fact that more than a hundred Israeli hostages are in the Strip will require some form of ground forces to penetrate Gaza, one of most densely populated areas in the world. Fox News continues:
Israeli forces recaptured areas near the Gaza Strip that had been overrun in a Hamas mass-infiltration over the weekend, Reuters reported. The Israeli Defense Force re-established control of communities but isolated clashes remain throughout the country, a military spokesperson said on Monday.
Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, a former senior advisor to David Friedman, spoke to Fox News Monday morning from a bomb shelter, where he confirmed the IDF had recaptured the occupied areas.
The death toll on Israel’s side will most likely stabilize now that gunmen are repelled and rockets are being stopped by the Iron Dome. Palestinian casualties are likely to dramatically increase.
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