Amid the war between Israel and Gaza, Israeli President Isaac Herzog briefed the international press on the situation in the war-torn country on Thursday. Speaking to the reporters, Herzog urged the international community to pressurise Hamas for the release of all the hostages. “The international community must demand Hamas release all the hostages,” Herzog said, as quoted by i24 News.
Herzog said that the press must look at reality and declare Hamas a terrorist organisation. "The press must look at the reality and declare Hamas a terrorist organization, no ifs and buts, without explanation. If families in Toronto were massacred in the same way, I'm sure the press would call it a massacre by terrorists. These are not freedom fighters".
During the press briefing, Herzog shared up-to-date data pertaining to the war, saying there were over 1,300 killed and at least 3,300 injured. Other than people from Israel, there were people from 36 nations among the victims. According to the data shared by the Israeli President, three people from India were missing. He stated that 30 communities were invaded but were back under control, and there were five infiltrations from Lebanon, as reported by i24 News.
The ongoing deadly conflict has led to a substantial loss of life, with at least 3,000 people killed so far. The conflict began on Saturday morning after Hamas, in a surprise assault, fired 5,000 rockets into Israel and initiated a coordinated attack on the Jewish state from air, land, and sea. In response, Israel declared war on Hamas and has been bombarding Gaza since then.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the US House foreign affairs committee has reportedly said Egypt warned Israel of the surprise Hamas attack three days in advance. Speaking to the media after a closed-door briefing for lawmakers on the issue, Republican Michael McCaul told reported, "We know that Egypt has warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen".
Without revealing any 'classified detail, he asserted, “I don’t want to get too much into classified [details], but a warning was given,” adding that it was unclear at what level. He claimed that the Hamas attack, which caught the Israeli forces off-guard, might have been planned a year ago. He added, “We’re not quite sure how we missed it. We’re not quite sure how Israel missed it.”
This comes two days after local media carried reports quoting an Egyptian official who claimed that Israel had ignored repeated warnings about the Hamas attack.