<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to bring the full force of the Israeli military against the Gaza Strip’s Hamas terror group Saturday night, warning Israelis of tough days ahead as the nation retaliates for a shocking surprise attack that has left hundreds dead and turned sleepy border towns into a war zone.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The Israel Defense Forces will act immediately to destroy Hamas’s capabilities,” Netanyahu said in a televised address, as terrorists were still holed up with hostages in at least three locations inside Israel. “We will cripple them mercilessly and avenge this black day they have brought upon Israel and its citizens.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Residents of Gaza, get out now. We will be everywhere and with all our might,” he added, as thousands of reserves troops made their way to military bases for a widely expected counteroffensive.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The premier spoke some 16 hours after hundreds of Hamas terrorists infiltrated into Israel from Gaza, invading towns and kibbutzim near the Strip, killing at least 250 people, many of them civilians, wounding over 1,500 and apparently taking dozens hostage. Thousands of rockets from Gaza pounded the south and areas as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the unprecedented attack, which caught Israel completely off-guard as it celebrated the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“This is an enemy that murders children and mothers in their homes, in their beds. An enemy that kidnaps the elderly, kids, youths. Murderers who massacre and slaughter our citizens, our kids, who just wanted to have fun on the holiday,” Netanyahu said. “What happened today has never before seen in Israel, and I will make sure it does not happen again.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Slamming his fists down and injecting his words with fury, Netanyahu vowed that Israel would “win this war,” but warned of a heavy cost, hinting at a likely ground incursion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“This war will take time. It will be hard. We have tough days ahead of us,” he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Accusing Hamas of launching a “cruel and evil war,” the premier said that US President Joe Biden and other world leaders he had spoken with had “promised Israel would have freedom of action to continue this battle.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He did not mention discussions he’d held with opposition leaders to form an emergency unity government but noted his entire cabinet, made up primarily of hardliners who have long pushed for wider action against Gaza, stood behind the decision to hit back hard.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Any place Hamas deploys, in this evil city, all the places Hamas is hiding, operating — we will turn it into a ruin,” he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hours later, after huddling with ministers and security chiefs, Netanyahu said in a separate message that Israel was “embarking on a long and difficult war” that was “forced upon us by a murderous attack by Hamas.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first phase of the war, he wrote on X, involves “destroying most of the enemy forces” that infiltrated into Israel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel has also begun an offensive into Gaza “and it will continue without hesitation and without respite – until the goals are achieved,” the premier said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We will restore security to the citizens of Israel and we will win,” he writes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Netanyahu spoke as battles were still taking place inside Israel, with security forces struggling to locate an unknown number of terrorists who had overrun cities, agricultural communities and army bases early in the morning. In Sderot, a bulldozer rammed a police station where at least one terrorist was thought to be hiding, and pops of gunfire continued to echo through the city, with residents hiding inside and bodies on the streets.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gunbattles or hostage standoffs were also reportedly taking place in Kibbutz Be’eri, Kibbutz Kfar Aza and Ofakim. TTOI</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>