Israel amasses 100,000 troops on Gaza border following Hamas attacks

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Israel has amassed 100,000 troops plus tanks and armoured personnel carriers near the border with Gaza as it seeks to obliterate the militant Hamas group’s bases and governing facilities in retaliation for a series of shock attacks and hostage takings.

As the Israeli death toll grew to at least 700 and the Palestinian death toll exceeded 400 on latest estimates, the Israel Defence Forces said the military had targeted 500 sites in the Gaza Strip through the use of jets, helicopters and other aircraft.

Residents in Ashkelon, Israel inspect a damaged building on Monday after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip.Credit: AP

Israel, which has declared it is at war against Hamas, on Monday vowed to lay total siege to the Gaza Strip as its military scoured the country’s south for militants, guarded breaches in its border fence and pounded the impoverished Hamas-ruled territory in the wake of an unprecedented weekend incursion.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, saying authorities would cut all electricity and prevent food and fuel from entering the territory, which is home to more than two million people.

Israel’s military response has been complicated by the fact Hamas militants claim they have taken 130 Israelis hostages over recent days.

Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, said the hostages taken into Gaza included “babies, toddlers, young people, parents and grandparents”.

Retaliatory Israeli airstrikes destroyed whole apartment blocks in Gaza City.Credit: Getty

“By tomorrow, I know these intolerable numbers will have risen once again,” he said. “Many, many funerals of victims and heroes are being conducted amid this ongoing tragedy, and Israel is a nation of broken hearts.”

Australian response

As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged Australians not to attend pro-Palestine rallies following Hamas’ “indefensible” attacks on Israeli civilians, the opposition called on the government to cease all support for the Palestinian Territories unless the money was redirected to purely humanitarian purposes.

Pro-Palestine advocates and Labor sources conceded that the push to recognise Palestinian statehood, as outlined in the party’s policy platform, had suffered a major blow and was likely to be off the agenda for years after Hamas’ unexpected and brutal incursions into Israeli territory.

Parliament House in Canberra was lit up in the colours of the Israeli flag on Monday night in a sign of solidarity with Israel, as was the Sydney Opera House and several Melbourne landmarks, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground and National Gallery of Victoria.

Albanese is facing a backlash from Muslim community leaders who say they feel thrown aside after the prime minister energetically courted them to back an Indigenous Voice to parliament.

Saying that he expected Israel to “unleash hell” on Gaza over coming days, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni said: “I’m not sure recognition [of Palestinian statehood] is something that could be contemplated by a government that is lighting up the Opera House with the Israeli flag while Palestinians are also being killed.”

Battles continue in ‘seven to eight’ locations

More than two days after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion from Gaza, the Israeli military said it was still battling Hamas militants in seven to eight places in southern Israel.

Israeli Defence Forces spokesman Richard Hecht said it was taking longer than expected to repel the incursion because there were still multiple breaches in the border, which Hamas could be using to bring in more fighters and weapons.

“We thought this morning we’d be in a better place,” Hecht said.

The Biden administration announced that it would send the USS Gerald R. Ford, the US Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, to the region to conduct surveillance and prevent further weapons from reaching Gaza.

The ship, with about 5000 sailors and a deck of warplanes on board, will be accompanied by cruisers and destroyers in a major show of support for Israel.

Albanese shifts tone

Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who spoke to her Israeli counterpart on Monday, said Israel had not requested any military assistance from Australia.

Referring to Wong’s initial comments that all sides should show restraint, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said it was “completely and utterly the wrong time for that sort of language”, and backed Israel’s right to hit back after Hamas’ “barbaric” attacks.

On Sunday and across several media appearances on Monday, Albanese condemned the Hamas assault as abhorrent and asserted Israel’s right to respond.

Albanese described Hamas’ indiscriminate targeting of civilians – including young people at a desert festival – as “quite unprecedented and quite horrific”, saying the attacks had “been quite rightly condemned by the world”.

Albanese’s tone had shifted slightly by Monday afternoon, when he acknowledged Palestinians had suffered “for a long period of time” and affirmed his support for a two-state solution.

“The Palestinian people have, of course, continued to do it tough … I’m a supporter of Israel, I’m also a supporter of Palestinians as well,” he told Sydney radio station 2GB’s afternoon program.

While saying the issues involved were complex, Albanese said he did not believe the cause of peace would be advanced by people attending “free Palestine” rallies, including one in Sydney on Monday afternoon.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry spokesman Alex Ryvchin condemned a Sunday night pro-Palestinian rally in Lakemba, Sydney, as sickening.

“It’s truly devastating and sickening to see such inhumanity in our midst,” he said in Sydney.

“I place the blame at their leaders, at the clerics that incite them, that tell them that this is OK … they need to be held to account for this.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the planned rally would not further the goal of peace.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Albanese gave a categorical “no” when asked whether any Australian money had made its way to Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.

“We are very careful,” he said, adding Australia provided aid via the United Nations for essentials such as food and healthcare.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the Coalition had regularly raised concerns about the government’s decision last year to double funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency in the Palestinian Territories from $10 million to $20 million.

“Until the proper use of Australian taxpayer funding can be guaranteed, the Coalition believes funding should cease or be redirected into purely humanitarian assistance,” Birmingham said.

‘People feel used’

The emerging rift between the federal government and the Muslim community comes days after the Australian National Imams Council asked all imams and speakers to dedicate last Friday’s address, or khutbah, to backing a Yes vote in Saturday’s Voice referendum.

A spokesperson for the council, which has supported a Yes vote on the referendum, said: “People feel used. They feel as though when it has suited the government it sought the support of the community, it entered their sacred places, and in the moment it no longer suited, the concerns and sentiments of that community were thrown to one side and ignored.”

Condemning all violence as reprehensible, the spokesperson said pro-Palestine protests were “an expression of frustration at the constant ignoring of Palestinian suffering and death” and questioned why the colours of the Palestinian flag had not been projected onto the Opera House.

Albanese has developed a close relationship with Imam council president Shady Alsuleiman, viewing him as an important ally to gain support for the Voice in Muslim communities.

Gamel Kheir, secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, said the group felt “blindsided by the prime minister” after Albanese visited its Lakemba mosque on Friday.

“He extended one hand on Friday then slapped us in the face on the Sunday,” he said.

“We don’t support the death of any life; every life is a valuable life,” he said. “But calling out one party, and not the other, is frustrating the community.”

Kheir said the association would continue to support the Voice because it believed it was morally right, but urged the government to take a more “neutral” approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

With AP

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