Israel orders military to hunt down remaining Oct 7 Hamas attackers

Israel has ordered its military to track down and kill the remaining 2,000 participants involved in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack, according to Defence Minister Israel Katz. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel's commitment to pursuing the attackers, securing hostages' release and ending Hamas rule in Gaza.

Jerusalem:  Israel has ordered its military to hunt down and kill the remaining participants in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, Defence Minister Israel Katz said, putting their number at 2,000.

Katz on Monday said about 6,000 attackers crossed the border into Israel on that day, adding that 4,000 of them had already been killed and that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered the military to pursue the rest, reports Xinhua news agency.

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“We ordered the military to pursue and kill them all, from the most senior to the most junior,” Katz said.

Separately, speaking on Monday at a state memorial ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Israel will continue pursuing those who carried out the attack and held hostages, and to end Hamas’ rule in Gaza.

Earlier in September, Netanyahu in his address to the General Assembly, shot down accusations of carrying out a “genocide” of Palestinians in Gaza, calling it “the greatest lie of the century”.

Netanyahu projected a powerful country that was fighting on seven fronts, against “Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, militias in Iraq, militias in Syria, Palestinian terrorists in Judea Samaria (West Bank)”.

“They all ganged up on us to wipe us off the face of the Earth. They failed”, he said.

When Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza in October 2023, he said, “We didn’t collapse. Instead, we rose and fought like lions”.

Netanyahu also defended his country’s bombing of Iran claiming, “If we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead”.

The Hamas-led attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel. It triggered the massive Israeli military operations across Gaza that have killed more than 74,200 people, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

Israel has killed much of Hamas’ senior leadership during its three-year military operations in Gaza, including Yahya Sinwar and his younger brother Mohammad Sinwar.