Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Monday that Israel’s fierce offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has “only started.” “We have only started striking Hamas,” he said. “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”
Follow all updates as reported by The Associated Press:
Netanyahu: offensive against Hamas will ‘reverberate’ forever
Newslooks- (AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Monday that Israel’s fierce offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has “only started.”
Netanyahu delivered the pronouncement in a nationally televised address as Israel pressed ahead with a third day of heavy airstrikes in Gaza following Hamas’ unprecedented and deadly incursion into Israel.
“We have only started striking Hamas,” he said. “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”
Israel formally declared war on Sunday. The hostilities so far have killed around 900 people in Israel and more than 680 people in Gaza, according to authorities on each side.
EUROPEAN UNION REVERSES SUSPENSION OF AID TO PALESTINIAN AUTHORITIES
The European Union late Monday reversed an earlier announcement by an EU commissioner that the bloc was immediately suspending aid for Palestinian authorities and instead said it would urgently review such assistance in the wake of the attacks on Israel by Hamas.
“There will be no suspension of payments” at the moment, a terse European Commission statement said late Monday, five hours after EU Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi had said that all payments from the development program for Palestinians would be immediately suspended.
No immediate explanation for the reversal was given. The reversal on a 691 million-euro ($730 million) program capped an embarrassing day at the EU’s executive at a time of extreme geopolitical sensitivities.
MORE THAN 680 PEOPLE KILLED IN GAZA, HEALTH MINISTRY SAYS
The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said Monday that more than 680 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes following an unprecedented Hamas attack.
The ministry said more than 3,700 people have been wounded.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since the Saturday attack, striking hundreds of targets and leaving vast destruction.
UN SAYS EFFORTS UNDERWAY TO PREVENT CONFLICT FROM SPREADING
The United Nations says intense diplomatic activity is taking place aimed at ensuring that regional and international leaders are on the same page in trying to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hamas from spreading.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Monday that he and U.N. Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland are engaging with key parties in the region.
Guterres has spoken to Israel’s president and Jordan’s king and expects to talk to the Palestinian president, Israel’s prime minister, Egypt’s president and Lebanon’s prime minister, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Wennesland has been in touch with his counterparts from the United States, European Union, Qatar, Lebanon and others.
MORE THAN 100 BODIES FOUND IN FARMING COMMUNITY, ISRAEL SAYS
Israeli rescue service Zaka says more than 100 bodies have been recovered from a small farming community that was the scene of a hostage standoff during Hamas’ attack against Israel.
The figure is part of the total 900 reportedly killed in Hamas’ multi-pronged attack. Beeri, a kibbutz, had a population of about 1,000 people before the attack.
BIDEN TO SPEAK WITH ALLIES ON ISRAEL SITUATION, WHITE HOUSE SAYS
U.S. President Joe Biden plans to speak with several allies Monday regarding the situation in Israel, according to the White House.
Earlier Monday, Biden convened a meeting with top national security aides, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer, Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall and White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients.
During that meeting, Biden urged continued coordination with Israel and other regional partners, the White House said.
The White House has called a “lid” for the day, meaning the public won’t lay eyes on the U.S. president until Tuesday.
Biden has spoken at least twice with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the White House says his top national security aides have been in regular contact with their counterparts in the region since the surprise Hamas attack on Saturday.
CHEVRON TO STOP PRODUCTION IN MEDITERRANEN OFF ISRAEL COAST
American oil giant Chevron Corp. said Monday that at Israel’s instruction it had stopped production at its offshore Tamar natural gas rig in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel.
In a statement announcing the action, the company declined to discuss any security issues and didn’t say why Israel ordered it.
The Tamar field, which went online in 2013, is believed to hold more than 300 billion cubic meters of gas. Chevron and the Israeli-American company Isramco each own around a third of Tamar, with the remainder held by smaller firms.
There have been threats previously against Israel’s offshore oil rigs by militant groups in the region and Lebanon has disputed Israel’s maritime boundaries.
The ongoing fighting in Israel and the Gaza Strip has sparked a jump in crude oil prices, in part over a fear of a wider regional conflict breaking out. Israel and the Palestinian territories don’t produce oil. Benchmark Brent crude traded up Monday to over $87 a barrel.
HEZBOLLAH SAYS 5 MEMBERS KILLED IN ISRAELI SHELLING IN LEBANON
Five members of Hezbollah were killed during Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group announced Monday. The group identified them as Hussam Mohammad Ibrahim, Ali Raef Ftouni, Ali Hudruj, Bilal Madi and Mohammed Mansour.
The first of three statements announcing the deaths shared photos of Ibrahim in military garb posing with an AK-47 assault rifle.
Earlier Monday, the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said in a statement that it sent four gunmen across Lebanon’s border into Israel as part of the Hamas-led attack that started over the weekend. Israeli Defense Forces reported that its troops shot and killed several gunmen who crossed into the country from Lebanon.
The Lebanese military called on residents of border towns to “take the utmost precautions.” Families in several towns in southern Lebanon started fleeing north as the Israeli shelling continued.
PALESTINIAN DIPLOMAT IN UK SAYS ISRAEL COMMITTING WAR CRIME
The top Palestinian diplomat in the U.K. says Israel is committing a war crime by cutting off water and electricity supplies to Gaza.
Husam Zomlot told a gathering of Palestinian supporters at the Labour Party’s annual conference that Palestinians “need justice, not revenge.”
“And what Israel is doing now is revenge, sheer vengeance.”
The left-of-center Labour Party has been riven in recent years by allegations that antisemitism was allowed to spread under previous leader Jeremy Corbyn, a strong advocate of the Palestinian cause.
Labour’s leadership has strongly condemned Hamas’ weekend attacks, and conference delegates held a minute’s silence for the victims at the conference on Monday.
