Israel is going to begin a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, a top official said on Oct. 19.
“Anyone who now sees Gaza from a distance will see it from the inside, I promise you,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops near the Israel–Gaza border. “The order will come.”
Israel has been firing rockets at the strip in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel but hasn’t yet sent in ground troops.
“There is no forgiveness for this thing. Only total annihilation of Hamas organization—terror infrastructures, everything that has to do with terrorists and whoever sent them. It will take a week, it will take a month, it will take two months, until we eliminate them. You are not alone in battle,” Mr. Gallant said.
“We trust you and count on you. Carry on training while there is time, get organized, be prepared, the command will come. Thanks guys, we count on you. Good luck.”
Video footage of the visit was shared by Mr. Gallant’s office.
Yaron Finkelman, commanding officer of the Southern Command, separately suggested that Israel is going to enter Gaza.
“Now, our maneuvers are going to take the war into their territory,” he said while visiting with soldiers in southern Israel. “It’s going to be long. It’s going to be intense. The best commanders and soldiers are here.”
U.S. President Joe Biden was in Israel this week meeting with top officials but departed earlier on Oct. 18.
Hamas terrorists carried out a surprise attack over the border on Oct. 7, leaving about 1,400 dead and thousands of others wounded, according to the Israeli government. The death toll also includes dozens of Americans. Hamas also took hostages from Israel back into Gaza.
“Hamas committed atrocities that recall the worst ravages of ISIS, unleashing pure unadulterated evil upon the world,” President Biden said while in Tel Aviv.
He also said the United States is working with Israel to secure the return of the hostages.
“We are going to make sure you have what you need to protect your people, to defend your nation,” President Biden said.
Officials in Gaza, the government of which is largely run by Hamas, have said that more than 3,500 people have been killed there, and more than 12,000 wounded, by Israeli airstrikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also visited with troops near the border and told them, “We are going to win with all our might.
“All of Israel is behind you, and we are going to heavily strike our enemies so that we can achieve victory.”
Gaza Aid
Israel stated this week that it wouldn’t keep aid from entering Gaza from Egypt. According to the United States, Egypt has agreed to reopen its border crossing to let some aid flow into the enclave.Truckloads of aid and volunteer workers have been piling up on the Egyptian side for days—as the United Nations warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
Egypt’s Sinai peninsula adjoins the roughly 140-square-mile Gaza Strip, and its Rafah Border Crossing is the sole route for aid to enter Gaza directly from outside Israel. It’s also the only exit that doesn’t lead to Israeli territory.
Mr. Netanyahu said in a video statement that Israel wouldn’t let aid into Gaza from Israel and that he had made that clear to President Biden.
More than 100 trucks were waiting close to the crossing on the Egyptian side on Oct. 19, although it wasn’t expected that aid would enter before Oct. 20, Egyptian security sources said. More aid is being held in the Egyptian city of Al Arish, about 28 miles from Rafah.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with U.S. Army Gen. Michael Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, to discuss matters, including “the developments in the Gaza Strip,” President Sisi’s office stated.
“The president outlined Egypt’s efforts for de-escalation, stressing the importance of the international community’s concerted efforts to contain the crisis and stop its escalation in dangerous directions,” the statement reads.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents depended on aid before the current conflict started on Oct. 7, and about 100 trucks daily were providing humanitarian relief to the enclave, according to the U.N.
Egypt has expressed alarm at the idea that Israel’s bombing of Gaza could force its residents southward and has stated that it won’t allow any new mass displacement of Palestinians. In a sign of the country’s concerns, President Sisi said on Oct. 18 that Egyptians in their millions would reject the forced displacement of Palestinians into Sinai, noting that any such move would turn the Egyptian peninsula into a base for attacks against Israel.
