Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that his military has “only started” its massive counterattack against the Hamas militants who rampaged through his country on Saturday, likening the Iran-backed Palestinian group to the Islamic State and saying its fighters committed terrorist acts such as tying up and and executing innocent children.
In a nationally televised address, Mr. Netanyahu cast Israel’s new war against the Gaza-based Palestinian group as a war for his country’s very existence, contending that Israel faces its greatest threat in decades. His comments come after Israel announced a full-scale siege of the poor, densely populated Gaza enclave, with Israeli officials saying that all food, fuel and other goods will be cut off as Jerusalem takes never-before-seen steps to obliterate the Hamas fighter network.
Mr. Netanyahu cast the situation facing Israel as unprecedented, and one that deserves an unprecedented response.
“We are on the third day of the operation,” Mr. Netanyahu said, according to English-language translations published by The Times of Israel. “We are in an operation for the home, a war to ensure our existence, a war that we will win.”
“This war was imposed upon us by a despicable enemy — by beasts who celebrate the murder of women, children and the elderly,” the Israeli prime minister said.
He likened Hamas to the Islamic State, the radical jihadist movement which established a so-called caliphate across swaths of Iraq and Syria nearly a decade ago. The group became known for its shockingly brutal tactics and killings. Mr. Netanyahu said those same kinds of unspeakable horrors were on display over the weekend when Hamas launched a well-coordinated, multi-pronged assault on Israel.
“The atrocities carried out by Hamas have not been seen since the atrocities of ISIS. Children bound and executed with the rest of their families, young girls and boys shot in the back, executed, and other atrocities that I will not describe here,” he said. “We have always known what Hamas is. Now the whole world knows. Hamas is ISIS.”
Mr. Netanyahu said Israel’s response will alter the course of history in the region.
“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.”
As Mr. Netanyahu spoke, fighting continued on multiple fronts Monday. Israeli forces launched major strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza, while mortars were reportedly fired into northern Israel from Lebanon, presumably by the terror group Hezbollah, which is also backed by Iran and has a history of coordinating operations with Hamas. More than 800 Israelis have been killed in the fighting so far, along with hundreds of Palestinians inside Gaza killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes.
At least nine Americans were killed during the Hamas attack, the State Department said Monday, and others are still missing. Americans may also be among the more than 100 hostages reportedly taken by Hamas gunmen.
Hamas’ taking of hostages will greatly complicate the Israeli response. A spokesman for Hamas said Monday its militants will start killing one civilian hostage every time Israel launches an unannounced strike that hits Palestinian civilians in their homes in Gaza. Video of the killings of hostages will be broadcast, said Abu Obeida, spokesman of the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
“We declare that we will respond to any targeting of our people who are safe in their homes without warning, with the execution of our civilian hostages, and we will broadcast it with audio and video,” Mr. Obeida said, according to a translation of his message.
• Staff writer Mallory Wilson contributed to this story.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.