Israel’s Netanyahu vows to ‘crush and destroy’ Hamas as ground war looms
- As strikes devastate Gaza, Israel forms a unity government to oversee war sparked by Hamas attack
- Israel has massed forces, tanks and other heavy armour around Gaza in its retaliatory operation
Israel pounded Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip for the fifth straight day since the militants’ audacious attack and the death toll spiralled into the thousands, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed the complete destruction of the militant group.
“Every Hamas member is a dead man,” the veteran right-wing Israeli leader said on Wednesday, again likening them to Islamic State promising: “We will crush them and destroy them as the world has destroyed Daesh.”
Netanyahu earlier temporarily settled his political differences and set up an emergency government including centrist former defence minister Benny Gantz, along with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Gallant, the defence minister, said: “We will wipe this thing called Hamas, Isis-Gaza, off the face of the Earth. It will cease to exist”.
Gantz, a former general, said it was a time to join together and win. “There is a time for peace and a time for war. Now is a time for war,” he said.
Saturday’s surprise attack – the worst in Israel’s 75-year history – has seen a total of 1,200 people killed in the Islamist militants’ onslaught, according to Israeli forces. Most were civilians.
