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SvennoJ on 15 June 2024
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Netanyahu says war ‘must continue’ after Hamas ambush kills 8 Israeli soldiers in Rafah

    The Israeli army said that an initial probe into the incident shows that a combat engineer vehicle carrying all eight of those soldiers exploded.

    They are looking into the possibility that it was an antitank missile that was fired, though an initial investigation shows that it was some sort of explosive that was either underneath the vehicle or placed on it by, perhaps, a Hamas fighter.

    Nonetheless, the Israeli army is saying that this was an attack and Hamas confirming that it was their fighters that launched the attack.

    We’ve been hearing from Israeli politicians across the political aisle. [Israeli] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that even though there had been heavy losses in this war and today, specifically, the war and the fighting must continue until all of the goals are achieved.

    Nearly nine months into this war, Israel has not accomplished what it set out to back in October. There are still more than 120 Israeli captives still being held inside of Gaza and since the ground invasion began late last year, the death toll of Israeli soldiers is now at 308.

    Israeli far-right minister calls for ‘complete destruction’ after lethal Hamas ambush in Rafah

    Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for “the complete destruction of the enemy” in Gaza following the Hamas ambush that killed eight Israeli soldiers in Rafah on Saturday.

    Smotrich said in a post on social media that Israel was in a “war for our existence”, adding that “our sons fell so we would win”.  “The heavy price of the war obliges us to continue until the complete destruction of the enemy,” he said.

    Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also said, “We must continue fighting”, in a post on social media. “…to topple Hamas, return all our abductees and assure their families that the death of their loved ones was not in vain.”

    ‘Total victory’ in Gaza war a ‘ridiculous’ goal that is impossible to achieve: Analyst

    Gideon Levy, author and columnist at the Israeli daily Haaretz, said the ambush in Rafah that killed eight Israeli soldiers will raise more questions in Israeli society about the war in Gaza, which is quickly becoming an unwinneable “endless war”.

    “It is not unprecedented but it is a very meaningful figure even though let’s remember that 38 people in Gaza were killed today,” Levy told Al Jazeera.

    “But it is different as eight soldiers is a big, heavy price for Israeli society, especially when it gets into the total number, and the total atmosphere, which, day-after-day, almost every day, we hear about losses of soldiers,” Levy said.

    “And more and more people in Israel are asking ‘What for?’ And, ‘Until when?'”

    “This war might become an endless war. A war of attrition which as strong as the Israeli army is, the Hamas forces can always kill and sabotage and then there will be retaliation. It leads nowhere and it is endless,” he said.

    “They will never achieve this ridiculous ‘total victory’ that Prime Minister Netanyahu is speaking about, and there will be no defeat here. It will go on, and on and on until Israel and Hamas – mainly Israel – will realise that it leads to nowhere and it must stop at any price.”