Israeli war chief threatens Gaza with 'heavy blows' after New Year's rocket barrage from Hamas
Hamas continues to fire rockets and battle Israeli ground forces 15 months after the start of the genocide on Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened Hamas on 1 January with "blows with a force not seen in Gaza for a long time" if the resistance movement does not release Israeli captives held in Gaza and does not stop firing rockets toward Israel.
"If Hamas does not soon allow the release of the Israeli hostages from Gaza, despite Israel's willingness to make far-reaching compromises in accordance with the principles outlined by the US president, and continues to fire at Israeli communities, it will receive blows with a force not seen in Gaza for a long time," Katz stated on Wednesday in the southern Israeli settlement of Netivot.
The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, fired a salvo of rockets at Netivot as the new year began.
Hamas continues to hold 100 Israelis captive in Gaza, with 64 believed alive. Israel has thousands of Palestinians captive in its prisons and detention camps, where Israeli guards regularly torture and rape them.
"The IDF will intensify its activities against the terror nests in Gaza until the release of the hostages and the elimination of Hamas," Katz continues.
"I call on the residents of Gaza to rise up against the murderous Hamas organization, which also uses you as human shields, and to bring about the release of the hostages, to prevent suffering and end the war," he adds.
Following Hamas's rocket fire on Israeli troops operating inside Gaza on Wednesday, the military demanded that all remaining civilians leave the Jabalia area.
While Hamas rockets do minor damage to Israeli settlements, the Israeli Air Force saidon Wednesday it had launched over 1,400 airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in December, including by fighter jets, attack helicopters, and drones.
The air strikes and accompanying ground operations have killed 1,170 Palestinians over the same period.
Since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023, Israeli forces have killed over 45,550 Palestinians, according to a count by Gaza health authorities.
However, some estimates of the death toll are much higher. Palestinian Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta told Democracy Now! that the toll may be as high as 300,000.