Israel has ordered elite spies to hunt down and kill “any individual” involved in the October 7 atrocity as the country wages a growing war on two fronts.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned yesterday that the country is in a double battle to wipe out Hamas in Gaza while trying to counter Hezbollah firing rockets from Lebanon.
He said Hezbollah terrorists in the north will make “the biggest mistake of their lives” if they fully join the fight.
The creation of a special unit to hunt down Hamas fanatics who killed 1,400 people two weeks ago echoes the Mossad’s “Operation Wrath of God” to kill terrorists from the Palestinian group Black September decades ago.
They had killed Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich massacre, and Israeli ‘Iron Lady’ leader Golda Meir ordered their killings – as told in Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film Munich.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) warned yesterday that the nation was engaged in a ‘double battle’ to ‘obliterate Hamas’ in Gaza
A man carries an injured Palestinian child after the Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza
Yesterday it was reported that Mossad’s sister security agency Shin Bet had set up a special unit called Nili, an acronym meaning “Israel’s eternity will not lie.”
It is tasked with ‘eliminating’ anyone who played a role in Hamas’s massacres.
Fears are growing that the war between Israel and Hamas could drag the Middle East into what Rishi Sunak called a “contagion of conflict.”
As Israel prepares to send ground troops to Gaza to root out Hamas, Israel’s prime minister delivered a speech to troops preparing to defend Israel against the much larger Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Taking flak, Mr. Netanyahu declared: “We are now in a double battle. A battle for our lives. A battle for our home. This is the war. It’s do or die – they must die.
“One battle is a battle to take action here and on the other hand to win there (in Gaza), an absolute victory that will erase Hamas.” He warned: “If Hezbollah decides to enter the war… they will make the biggest mistake of their lives.”
Yesterday, Israel stepped up airstrikes on Gaza ahead of the ground invasion. It said the overnight strikes had killed dozens of Hamas terrorists. Israeli fighter jets also hit two airports in Syria – amid fears that Iranian-backed fighters are gathering – and a mosque in the occupied West Bank reportedly used by militants.
The country has exchanged fire with Lebanese Hezbollah militants since the start of the war, and tensions are high in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces have battled militants and carried out two airstrikes in recent days.
Meanwhile, Israelis living near the country’s northern border with Lebanon have been evacuated. Netanyahu’s defiant speech came just hours after Iran issued a chilling warning to the United States saying Israel’s war with Hamas could “spiral out of control” if it does not “immediately” cease attacks on Gaza .
Israeli soldiers and armored vehicles are in position along the Israel-Lebanon border
A young man carries a bag of food as smoke rises from buildings behind him during an Israeli attack in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned: “Anything is possible at any time.”
In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat vowed to attack “the head of the snake, which is Iran” if Hezbollah escalates the conflict.
Yesterday, Israel claimed in Gaza that the humanitarian situation was “under control”, despite the death toll now exceeding 4,600 – more than three times the number of Israelis killed by Hamas.
Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in the occupied territory yesterday, bringing the number of deaths in the region since October 7 to 91, the Hamas-led Palestinian Health Ministry said.
It came as Israeli President Isaac Herzog told Sky News that Hamas carried instructions on how to make chemical weapons when they carried out their October 7 massacre. He said documents found on the bodies of dead fighters in Kibbutz Be’eri were “official Al-Israel.” Qaeda material showing how to build a weapon with cyanide.
