Amid fears of a ground invasion, the Israeli military amassed as many as 100,000 reserve troops near the embattled border in an ongoing war with Hamas in a bid to regain control of the desert near the Gaza Strip, as the death toll surged above 1,100 by the third day of clashes.
A spokesman for the Israeli military said his country has gathered 100,000 reserve troops near Gaza for the ongoing war with Hamas.
“We have amassed around 100,000 reserve troops who are currently in southern Israel,” said an Israeli military spokesperson in a video posted to X.
An IDF Spokesperson @jconricus shares an important statement on ‘Swords of Iron’. LIVE from Tel Aviv: https://t.co/5lYJlleXK6
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 8, 2023
“Our job is to make sure that at the end of this war, Hamas will no longer have any military capability to threaten Israeli civilians,” Jonathan Conricus added.
He said the Israeli military will also make sure that Hamas will not be able to govern the Gaza Strip after the end of the war.
More than 700 Israelis have been killed since Hamas launched its large-scale attack, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday — the country´s worst losses since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
Gaza officials reported at least 413 deaths in the impoverished and blockaded enclave of 2.3 million people, which was hammered by Israeli air strikes on 800 targets ahead of what many feared may be a looming ground invasion.
Tens of thousands of Israeli forces were deployed to battle holdout Hamas fighters in the south, where the bodies of civilians had been found strewn on roads and in town centers.
