Hamas terrorists in an ISIS-like manner burned people alive, raped victims and shot babies in the head when they assaulted southern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israelis in a late-night address.
“Hamas is ISIS and we will destroy it like the world destroyed ISIS,” he said during a press conference with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (Likud) and former defense minister Benny Gantz who heads the National Unity party and who agreed on Wednesday to join an emergency government.
“We are fighting with full force on all fronts. We have gone over to the offensive. Every Hamas member is a dead man,” Netanyahu said.
“We saw bound children shot in the head, people burned while they were still alive and young people who were raped,” he explained.
“How great is the anguish and the pain? Every family in Israel knows someone from the massacre,” Netanyahu said.
He spoke as the death toll from Saturday’s attack rose to 1,200. Over 100 people were also taken captive including seniors and young children.
'At this time, we are all soldiers of the State of Israel.'
Israel declared war after the attack, with the IDF embarking on Operation Swords of Iron.
Gallant said that the Jewish people had not endured anything like this since the Holocaust.
The situation was brought under control only by the unprecedented heroism of civilians, soldiers and police, Gallant said.
He pledged that Israel would wipe Hamas off the face of the earth. “There is no situation in which children are killed” and the situation is just ignored, Gallant said.
Gantz said that these were “fateful days” for the state of Israel.
“I turn to every citizen who feels that they have lost a sense of personal safety. I understand the fear and the pain and I have no words to comfort you.
“The nation of Israel is the strongest in the region,” he said.
"Our standing here, shoulder to shoulder, is a clear message to our enemies, and more importantly, a message to all citizens of Israel – we are all together, we are all mobilizing,” Gantz said.
The new emergency unity government, he said, was not born of a “political partnership” but of “a shared fate.”
At this time, we are all soldiers of the State of Israel. This is the time to come together and win. This is not the time for difficult questions, it is the time for crushing responses on the battlefield,” Gantz stressed.