‘Will turn into rubble’: Netanyahu’s warning to Hamas militants amid attack

In a warning to Palestinian Hamas militants, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that their places of hiding in Gaza city would be “turned into rubble”.

He also asked residents of Gaza to leave, alerting them of a “forceful” operation by Israeli forces everywhere. “All of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble. I say to the residents of Gaza: Leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere,” he said in a tweet.

Netanyahu’s warning came a day after he declared a “state of war” in Israel.

“We are at war, not an operation. Hamas has launched a murderous surprise attack against the State of Israel and its citizens. I ordered first of all to cleanse the settlements of the terrorists who had infiltrated and ordered a large-scale mobilisation of reserves. The enemy will pay a price they have never known,” he said in a video statement on Saturday.

At least 300 people have been killed and over 1,600 have been injured in Israel due to the surprise attack by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip. Israeli media reported that rocket sirens continued to sound in many parts of Southern Israel.

Areas such as Sderot, Kibbutz Nir Am, Yad Mordechai, and Netiv Ha’asara, all located near the Gaza Strip, heard the warnings. Besides, Operation Iron Swords, launched by the Israel Defence Force in retaliation to the Hamas attack, claimed over 230 lives in Gaza and the West Bank.