ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the US secretary of state’s visit Thursday is a “tangible example of America’s unequivocally support of Israel.”
He compared the Hamas militant group that staged a ferocious attack on Israel over the weekend to the Daesh group.
“Just as Daesh was crushed, Hamas will be crushed,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated America’s support.
“The message I bring with me is this: You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourselves but as long as America exists you will never have to,” he said.
Israel and Hamas traded more heavy fire Thursday in the Gaza war that has killed thousands as Blinken visited to stress strong solidarity but also urge restraint to protect Palestinian civilians.
Israel’s army has hammered Hamas with thousands of strikes ahead of what is widely expected to be a ground invasion of the crowded territory, after Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and took about 150 hostages.
More than 1,300 Palestinians have died in Gaza as Israel has levelled entire city blocks and destroyed thousands of buildings in the six days since Hamas launched their unprecedented attack, the bloodiest in Israeli history.
“Every Hamas member is a dead man,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the traumatized nation after forming a wartime government Wednesday, likening Hamas to the Daesh group and vowing to “crush them and destroy them.”
US President Joe Biden — who has strongly backed Israel and started sending military aid — also cautioned on Wednesday that Israel must, despite “all the anger and frustration … operate by the rules of war.”
Fears have grown for Gaza’s 2.4 million residents now enduring the fifth war in 15 years in the long-blockaded territory, which has also seen seen Israel cut off water, food and power supplies.