Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz on Tuesday said he had put the Israeli military on alert ahead of the anniversary of Hamas attack, which took place on October 7, 2023, claiming that this was done based on intelligence inputs.
The October 7 Hamas attack on Israel killed 1,221 people in total, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. In response, Israel launched a military offensive that has left most of Gaza in ruins, killing more than 74,200 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel had, last week on Saturday (October 3), attempted to kill Hamas’s top leader in the Gaza Strip in an airstrike on an apartment that local officials said killed five people, four of them women, according to AFP.
Katz said Israel had received “intelligence regarding Hamas’ intentions to attempt terror operations” in Gaza on that day, following which the instruction was issued, AFP reported. A statement issued by Israeli defence minister Katz’s office warned that Gaza would pay a “heavy price” if any of Israel’s forces were harmed. Katz’s office said the instruction came “in light of intelligence regarding Hamas’ intentions to attempt to carry out attacks and terror operations against our forces in Gaza on that day”, AFP reported. “If, heaven forbid, our forces are harmed, the ones who will pay the heavy price will be Hamas and the population of Gaza — beyond all proportion,” the statement said.
