GAZA/TEL AVIV (dpa-AFX) – After the surprising Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, a minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has assumed joint responsibility for the first time. “We are the government at the time it happened. We are responsible,” Education Minister Joav Kisch said on Israeli television on Thursday. The army is also responsible.
Israel was taken completely by surprise by Saturday’s attack, even though its army and intelligence services are considered to be leading the way internationally. “We were dealing with nonsense,” said Kisch, who belongs to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. “We have forgotten where we live.” But now is not the time to deal with that. “Now we have to concentrate on winning.”
Terrorists on behalf of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, carried out a massacre of Israeli civilians in border towns and at a music festival on Saturday. It was the worst bloodbath in Israeli history. According to the army, the number of deaths is more than 1,200. At least 3,000 other people were injured.
The Israeli army then said it attacked hundreds of terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip. The number of Palestinians killed rose to at least 1,354 on Wednesday. More than 6,000 other people were injured, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said./jak/DP/men