Israel puts military on high alert ahead of October 7 anniversary, warns Gaza will pay 'heavy price'
Defence Minister Israel Katz put the IDF on high alert ahead of the October 7 anniversary, citing intelligence on planned Hamas attacks and warning Gaza would pay a 'heavy price' if forces are harmed.
Israel’s defence minister on Tuesday put the military on high alert ahead of the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, warning that Gazans would pay a “heavy price” if Israeli forces were harmed, AFP reported.
The office of Defence Minister Israel Katz said the instruction came “in light of intelligence regarding Hamas’s intentions to attempt to carry out attacks and terror operations against our forces in Gaza on that day”. October 7 falls on Wednesday this year.
“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 added.
Katz instructed the IDF to prepare for the worst and act with force to thwart any threat, The Jerusalem Post reported. The Post added that Shin Bet director David Zini had warned the Security Cabinet on Monday that Hamas was planning to kidnap soldiers, and that a similar warning was conveyed during a visit Katz made with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Kissufim outpost on the Gaza border.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack was the deadliest day in Israel’s history, killing 1,221 people according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures; 251 hostages were taken into Gaza, 44 of them already dead. Israel’s ensuing offensive has killed more than 74,200 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable.
On Monday, during a state ceremony marking three years since the attack, Netanyahu vowed there would be “no Hamas rule in Gaza” and said Israel would continue targeting anyone involved in the attack or holding hostages.
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