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Morning Wire Newsletter:

Israel At War
The Topline: Thousands of Israelis have been injured or killed following attacks by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas – in an assault reportedly greenlit and supported by Iran.

(Photo by MAHMUD HAMS via Getty Images)
Fire & Fury
Israel declared war after a surprise terror attack by Hamas killed hundreds of Israeli civilians and at least four Americans. Hamas launched the deadly attack on Saturday morning at the start of a Jewish holiday weekend. Reports now suggest that Iran greenlit the terrorist operation

On Saturday morning, Palestinian militants invaded over 20 towns and slaughtered everyone – the elderly, families, children – regardless of whether they were armed. Most weren’t. At least 260 dead bodies were found at a music festival near the Gaza border.

Horrifying images flooded social media. One photo showed several older people lying in pools of blood at a bus stop. A video showed a Hamas militant leading a bloody woman by her hair into a vehicle. Another video showed Hamas parading a dead woman around in the back of a truck. They had stripped her of her clothes and mutilated her body. Another video showed captive children held in something similar to a dog cage.

The Israeli military appears to have been caught completely unprepared; it’s not clear right now how much Israeli or American intelligence knew of the attack ahead of time, but security forces were unable to stem the flood of militants in the early hours of the attack. Now, hundreds of Israelis are dead, thousands more are wounded, and more were taken captive and are being held by Hamas, including women and children.

Context: This is the most serious attack on Israel in modern history – on a per capita basis, the loss of life is far greater than what the U.S. experienced on 9/11 – and experts expect this to be a major inflection point in Israeli-Palestinian relations. Israel formally declared war for the first time in 50 years on Sunday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told all civilians to flee from Gaza.

The Israeli Defense Force’s counterattack has largely focused on clearing out Hamas militants from Israeli territory and dropping bombs on key targets in Gaza. Some of those targets unfortunately are located in densely populated areas. It’s not unusual for Hamas to run its operations from civilian areas to discourage attacks – using “human shields,” and high Palestinian casualties are expected.

Meanwhile: Hezbollah, another Islamic terrorist group backed by Iran, is threatening more attacks on Israel from Lebanon. Netanyahu promised that “the enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” so the expectation is this could be a very bloody campaign.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Iran was behind this attack – and in fact, held a meeting in Beirut last Monday to help plan it. According to that report, multiple officials in both Hamas and Hezbollah – as well as European and Syrian officials – have confirmed that Iran indeed helped coordinate the attack.

Many experts have said there’s no way Hamas could have pulled off a sophisticated operation like this without Iran’s help. Hamas fired so many rockets it overwhelmed the Iron Dome missile defense system, and the terror group used a combination of land, air, and sea vehicles to take over towns across southern Israel.

Remember: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has a close relationship with Hamas – they’ve helped train and supply them, and Tehran has used its extensive terror network to push its own agenda in the Middle East. Notably, Tehran very early came out in support of the Hamas operation – and a Hamas spokesman has said that the operation had help from Iran.

This follows the Biden administration unfreezing $6 billion for Iran in exchange for 5 American prisoners last month – a move that was widely criticized at the time and is getting even more blowback now. Biden has since come out and said that he’s offered his “unwavering support” to Netanyahu.

President Biden has already promised weapons to Israel, and U.S.

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