(DCWatchdog.com) – Highlighting the dire consequences of letting terrorists run free, officials and lawmakers marked six months since the militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel, kicking off a chain of intense back-and-forth strikes with Israel hitting Gaza in response.
Six months in, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a moment during a Cabinet talk to look back.
Since the onset of the war, Netanyahu vowed to wipe out Hamas and has been under the microscope, especially from Western countries, for how Israel has been acting in Gaza. The conflict has led to a tragic loss of civilian lives.
Netanyahu said in a statement on X, “Today we are marking six months of the war. The achievements of the war are considerable: We have eliminated 19 of Hamas’s 24 battalions, including senior commanders. We have cleared out Shifa and other terrorist command centers.”
After Hamas’ deadly attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that left around 1,200 people dead and took 240 hostages in southern Israel, Netanyahu declared war.
Since then, Gaza’s health department, run by Hamas, reported over 33,000 people have died in the area, though it was not clear who were fighters and who were civilians.
United Nations Secretary António Guterres did not hold back in his critique of Israel’s military actions, saying on X:
“Six months on, the Israeli military campaign has brought relentless death & destruction to Gaza. Lives shattered. Children dying for lack of food & water. This is incomprehensible & entirely avoidable. Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) also commented in a statement that six months of conflict had left the al-Shifa hospital wrecked, finding it nearly destroyed and without any patients during their visit.
“Like the majority of the north, Al-Shifa Hospital – once the largest and most important referral hospital in Gaza – is now an empty shell after the latest siege,” WHO noted.
The situation has spiraled into a humanitarian nightmare, with a massive portion of Gaza’s residents facing starvation and over a million displaced.
According to The Associated Press, as the six-month anniversary of the fighting came around, Israel started pulling troops out of Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza.
Yet, this move seemed more about reorganizing for a potential push into Rafah, something the Biden administration has cautioned Israel against.
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