Operation Swords of Iron: What happened on days 6-7?

Israel will destroy Hamas, no matter how long it takes, and will finish the war stronger, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an unusual address on Friday night.

"This is just the beginning," he said. "Our enemies have only begun paying the price and I will not say more. This is just the beginning."

Lapid: Netanyahu sent Israel into a frenzy for nothing

Opposition head Yair Lapid attacked Netanyahu for not giving any new information while inducing anxiety among Israelis for an unusual address during Shabbat. 

"How can Israel's prime minister send an entire nation into a frenzy for an unusual Friday night statement only to then say nothing on the hostages, the North, the evacuations," Lapid charged.

"A prime minister should not make these statements unless he has new information."

לא ייתכן שראש ממשלת ישראל יכניס מדינה שלמה לסחרור חרדה בהמתנה להצהרתו בשישי בלילה בזמן של חירום ואז לא יגיד דבר חדש לא על משפחות החטופים, לא על חזית הצפון, לא על המפונים. הצהרות כאלה לא עושה ראש ממשלה אלא אם כן יש לו מידע חדש להביא לעמו ולארצו.

— יאיר לפיד - Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) October 13, 2023

During his short address, Netanyahu also stressed that Israel, through talks with US Secretary of State Lloyd Austin, is "ensuring the continuation of fighting" with American supply on its way to Israel.

Residents of towns in the Sdot Negev Regional Council were given the all clear after being ordered earlier to shelter in place on Thursday afternoon.

The IDF confirmed that the shelter in place order was issued after a terrorist was spotted attempting to infiltrate from Gaza near Kissufim. The terrorist was shot and killed.

Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri stated that 1,200 members of the terrorist movement's al-Qassam Brigades entered Israel during the assault on Saturday in an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday.

"The military plan of the al-Qassam Brigades was to target the Gaza division of the occupation army, and to fight only the occupation soldiers, and we had information that the occupation was planning to launch an attack on us after the Hebrew holidays," said Arouri.

Arouri claimed that Hamas was able to take over the headquarters of the IDF's Gaza Division in less than three hours, saying that even Hamas was "surprised."

"The occupation knows that its invasion of Gaza will turn the battle into a disaster for its army and its leaders. Our defensive plan is much stronger than the offensive plan, and this is what the occupation realizes."

Hamas leader repeats claims terrorists didn't target civilians

The Hamas leader repeated claims that the movement did not target civilians, accusing Israel of targeting civilians and Israelis as part of a "Hannibal Directive." The Hannibal Directive was a protocol that dictated that terrorists suspected of kidnapping Israelis are targeted even at risk of harming the hostages. In 2016, the IDF canceled the directive.

A dead body lies on the ground following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel, October 11, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/VIOLETA SANTOS MOURA)

Hamas has been conducting a campaign on social media in recent days, claiming that it did not target civilians in its assault and that the footage and testimony published by both Israelis and Palestinians are fake. Over 800 of the over 1,200 people killed in Hamas's assault had been confirmed as civilians as of Thursday afternoon.

"When the Israeli Gaza Division collapsed, civilians from Gaza entered and clashed with the settlers, and civilians fell," claimed Arouri. Footage from the area captured on Saturday showed individuals in the uniform of the al-Qassam Brigades and of other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip taking part in the massacre and mass kidnapping in southern Israel.

"Hamas cannot harm civilians or prisoners, and we act in accordance with international laws of war and according to the instructions of the Commander-in-Chief of al-Qassam, Abu Khaled al-Deif, not to harm children and women," added Arouri. Many of the civilians being held by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza are women and children.

"The West accuses us of committing crimes against humanity, but it ignores that the war against us was based on targeting civilians, and the Americans talk about morality when they exterminated an entire people, established a state on its land, and struck people with nuclear bombs," added Arouri.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned violence against civilians on Thursday in the wake of the devastating attack by Hamas terrorists on Israel and the relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israeli jets that followed.

"We reject the practices of killing civilians or abusing them on both sides because they contravene morals, religion and international law," the official Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted Abbas as saying.

Residents of towns in the Sdot Negev Regional Council were ordered to shelter in place on Thursday afternoon. The background of the incident is as of yet unclear.

This is a developing story.

Hamas's al-Aqsa TV channel was hacked on Thursday afternoon, broadcasting a message urging residents of the Gaza Strip to protect themselves and go to shelters.

"Hamas destroyed the Gaza Strip and smuggled its leaders to safe places. Now you have to protect yourselves, evacuate your homes, and go to safe places because the blow will be fatal," read the message broadcast on the channel.

Gazan officials blamed Israel for the hack.

The Jerusalem Post can now confirm based on verified photos of the bodies that the reports of babies being burnt and decapitated in Hamas's assault on Kfar Aza are correct.

May their memory be a blessing.

The global community must condemn Hamas’ ISIS-like atrocities, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanded during a solidarity trip to Israel, in which he also warned Israel that it must protect Palestinian civilian lives as it retaliates against the Gaza-based terror group.

“Hamas has only one agenda: To destroy Israel and to murder Jews,” Blinken said during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv. 

He arrived on the sixth day after Hamas began a war with Israel by attacking its southern border, killing 1,300 Israeli citizens and taking some 100 others hostage with a brutality that shocked the world.

“No country can or would tolerate the slaughter of its citizens or simply return to the conditions that allowed it to take place.

Israel has the right, indeed the obligation to defend itself and to ensure that this never happens again.

“But how Israel does this matters,” he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meet in Israel on October 11, 2023 (credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO)

Democracies distinguish themselves from terrorists “by striving for a different standard, even when its difficult,” he said.

“Our humanity.. that is what makes us who we are. That is why it is important to take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians,” Blinken said. 

Israel carried out a barrage of strikes at the Damascus International Airport and the Aleppo International Airport in Syria, Syrian reports alleged on Thursday.

Syrian air defenses responded to the strike, as per Syrian reports.

The alleged Israeli airstrikes come amid the IDF's ongoing Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas, and as shells were fired from the Syrian border into Israel on Tuesday night.

Some of the shells most likely landed in open fields in Israel's Golan Heights, the military added.

The IDF responded with artillery and mortar fire toward the source of the Syrian shelling.

This is a developing story.

Rocket sirens sounded in Beit Shemesh and the Judean hills area on Thursday afternoon.

Residents of Sdot Micha, Zakaria and Zanoah, as well as Beit Shemesh, were told to seek shelter.

This is a developing story.