The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has released several images and videos on the social network X, demonstrating that the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which has fired thousands of rockets into Israel and taken hundreds hostage, is now preventing Palestinian civilians from escaping the Israeli counter-attack on the part of Gaza that is under Hamas control.
“This is real. Hamas is forcefully preventing their civilians from relocating to southern Gaza for their own safety,” said an IDF post on X, put up just past midnight today, showing aerial footage of a row of heavy vehicles trying to leave, but their way blocked by barriers.
Another IDF post early this morning said: “The world needs to know: we are at war with Hamas, NOT the people of Gaza.”
Israel has already asked Palestinian civilians to leave the bombarded part of Gaza so that they can save themselves from the relentless Israeli airstrikes and the imminent ground offensive into Gaza. An IDF video earlier said that Hamas operatives hid among civilians, and it called the Palestinian terrorists the same as — or even worse than — the notorious Islamic State aka ISIS.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to wipe Hamas off the face of the earth. His X handle @IsraeliPM released a video late last night of Netanyahu visiting communities (kibbutz) that were invaded by Hamas terrorists. The first wave of Hamas attacks in the latest conflict began early in the morning on October 7.
The post accompanying the video said: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Gaza Envelope today. He toured Kibbutz Be’eri and Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and saw ruins of houses where the horrific massacre occurred.” The term “Gaza Envelope” refers to the cluster of Israeli settlements within 10km of the border fence between Israel and Gaza.
The nonstop Israeli airstrikes and the Israeli siege on Gaza — complete stoppage of all supplies of food, fuel, and power — in retaliation to the Hamas attacks have now led to humanitarian concerns, expressed in international circles. To counter that, Israel is using social media to highlight the fact that its state is at war with Hamas and not with Palestinian civilians, and also that it is Hamas which is using Palestinian civilians as human shields.