Massive Gaza onslaught as Israel warns airstrikes are “just the beginning” - BBC News
Massive Gaza onslaught as Israel warns airstrikes are “just the beginning”
Transcript
00:00 of air strikes and Gaza is now cut off from all essential services including electricity,
00:06 water and food.
00:09 Inside Gaza it looks every bit as if Palestinians are feeling the full force of Israeli military
00:15 power.
00:17 Israel says Hamas is responsible for the suffering of Gaza's civilians.
00:24 And its retaliation for the Hamas attacks has only just begun.
00:30 Hamas has threatened to start killing its Israeli hostages.
00:36 The air strikes rolled on hour after hour.
00:41 Palestinian armed groups and deterred kept up their own barrage of Israel.
00:50 Our BBC team was in Ashkelon in southern Israel not far from the Gaza border when a salvo
00:55 came in.
00:59 Ashkelon is so close to Gaza that there is no more than a ten second warning.
01:09 Israel is moving in more firepower.
01:11 The next stage of the offensive against Hamas looks certain to be a ground offensive, much
01:16 bigger than other incursions since Hamas took over in Gaza in 2007.
01:22 Lines of cars outside a military base on the road to Gaza were parked by reservists as
01:28 they reported for duty, getting ready, saying their goodbyes.
01:35 Parents came to the base for a few minutes with their sons.
01:39 We're praying and hope for the best in these tough times now.
01:47 And we're telling him to try and concentrate on his mission without thinking too much about
01:58 other friends that got injured or killed.
02:04 Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broadcast to his nation.
02:08 He said Hamas has made a mistake of historic proportions.
02:14 We will, he said, exact a price that will be remembered by them and Israel's other enemies
02:20 for decades.
02:23 And now Israelis are waiting for their government and army to act.
02:28 Sderot, the Israeli town closest to Gaza, littered with the debris of war, felt like
02:33 the essence of Israel's trauma, almost deserted except for security forces.
02:40 Hamas has rocketed Sderot for years but never before stormed in.
02:45 At the centre of the Hamas killing ground was the police station.
02:50 They broke in and used it as a fire base to shoot civilians as well as soldiers.
02:56 Blood from Israel's dead and wounded smears the walls.
03:02 Even here in what is always a frontline town for Israelis, this was not supposed to happen.
03:07 They expected their military, backed up by the intelligence services, to protect them.
03:13 And the fact that that didn't happen means that recriminations about who might be responsible
03:18 have already started.
03:20 But at the same time, there is a strong sense of national unity with the country under attack
03:26 about what happens next.
03:30 In the places that Hamas attacked, Israeli military as well as the few civilians left
03:34 are jumpy, still shocked.
03:37 A ground offensive didn't feel imminent.
03:43 And in Gaza, a few miles away, casualties come into the main hospital, the first few
03:48 hundred of many more.
03:50 It will get worse.
03:52 Palestinians and Israelis once more caught on the anvil of war in a conflict a century
03:59 old that is as deadly as it's ever been.
04:07 And here in Ashkelon this evening, so far it seems a little bit quieter and also I'm
04:12 not hearing the same level of explosions coming from Gaza as during the hours of daylight.
04:19 But I don't think they will have at all a quiet night.
04:24 I think on this side, Israelis, they're waiting to see what their government does next.
04:29 It feels almost like a lull, though back near Gaza, troops are jumpy, certainly pointing
04:36 their weapons at our cars as we approach their checkpoints because they are still concerned
04:42 there could be Hamas people on the loose.
04:45 And in Gaza, I think there must be an immense sense of trepidation among civilians.
04:50 And as for Hamas, well, they must have expected a response like this to the enormity of what
04:58 they did.
04:59 So perhaps they are prepared.
05:00 Who knows?