Former Israel prime minister Naftali Bennett joined soldiers at the battlefront amid Tel Aviv’s war with Hamas which has left over 1,200 dead on both sides.
Naftali Bennett shook hands with soldiers as he arrived for the reserve duty while Israel launched a massive counteroperation against Hamas. This came after Israel’s defense minister ordered a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip following an unprecedented invasion into Israel by Hamas. Israel formally declared war on Sunday as it pushed for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas after the surprise attack.
They fought in the country’s south against Hamas fighters and guarded breaches in its border fence as it regained control of border communities taken by Hamas fighters during the attack. Meanwhile, Hamas had continued fire barrages of rockets, setting off air raid sirens in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
European Union Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said that the bloc suspended “all payments immediately” to the Palestinians because of the “scale of terror and brutality” during the attacks of Hamas against Israel. The surprise announcement came just hours after EU officials stressed that no EU money had been going to Hamas.
The US State Department said that at least nine American citizens have been killed in the weekend Hamas attacks on Israel, raising the toll from four while an undetermined number of American citizens remain missing and unaccounted for. The US State Department is in touch with families “and providing all appropriate consular assistance,” spokesman Matthew Miller said.
