There were 700 dead Israelis and over 2,000 wounded from Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel as of Sunday, with the government issuing a formal declaration of war against Gaza and Hamas.
IDF Chief Spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari on Sunday morning said that the military is in the process of calling up hundreds of thousands of reservists in preparation for an eventual ground counter-invasion of Gaza, the largest call up in decades.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday night said that the IDF would “hit Gaza so hard, that they ill remember it for 50 years.”
IDF Chief-of-Staff (Lt.-Gen.) Herzi Halevi declared on Sunday night that Hamas’ actions were “murderous terror. Now we are doing the attacking, pursuing and striking anyone who took part in this and we will continue.”
“This is a time for war, not an operation, not a round, but a time for war,” he added.
Despite the tough talk and the immense call-up, there was no timeline on when the counter-invasion of Gaza - following Hamas' massive invasion of Israel's Gaza border villages Saturday morning - would start.
One source told the Jerusalem Post that it would start within less than a week, while another source said it was premature to discuss the timeline, while the IDF was still clearing Hamas from its own territory.
The sense from Hagari was that the focus Sunday would still be completing retaking control of any of the 22 villages and 29 entry points which Hamas used to invade Israel a day earlier.
In fact, as of Sunday night, there were still pockets of fighting within Israel, a delay of almost a day longer than originally predicted for clearing Hamas terrorists.
In 2014, the IDF's ground invasion only took place during the second week of the war.
In addition, Hagari said that the IDF would continue non-stop airstrikes on Gaza terror command and weapons centers, with the attacks having started in high volumes midday on Saturday.
800 airstrikes
By Sunday evening, the IDF had undertaken over 800 airstrikes on Gaza, over 120 on Beit Hanoun alone in a short window of time Sunday afternoon.
At one point, 50 IDF aircraft, drones, and helicopters were attacking simultaneously. The chief IDF spokesman said that thousands of IDF air force reservists had turned up for duty, giving their forces a major boost, and despite several months of dispute over the judicial overhaul (which currently appears frozen.)
Hagari said that the Beit Hanoun attack of leveling all terror infrastructure in an area would follow in many other Gaza areas.
Further, Hagari was still unclear on what the IDF's final war aims would be despite an announcement of war aims by the security cabinet a few hours before.
The security cabinet announcement mentioned destroying Hamas' fighting capability, but was unclear on the question of whether Hamas would eventually be left in control of Gaza and on how long Israel would be willing to fight to destroy the terror group's armed forces and military infrastructure, including the additional cost in IDF soldiers' lives and any ongoing diplomatic and public relations damage to Israel.
Although as of Saturday night, much of the world supported Israel's self-defense operations, in virtually every past conflict, once reports started to come out of Gaza of killed civilians, support for Israel globally plummeted fast into pressure to end its operations.
Hagari said that there were no more active known hostage situations and that the IDF had restored control in almost all areas invaded by Hamas, including, but not limited to: Sderot, Zikim, Beeri, Kisufim and at 29 invasion entry points.
Despite that improved position, Hagari said that there were still a number of smaller battles and ongoing searches for terrorists who were trying to hide in invaded areas.
He said that tens of thousands of IDF forces, along with special forces, were involved in the Gaza corridor fighting.
For example, on Sunday morning he said there were still smaller battles going on in Beeri.
Moreover, Hagari said that the IDF had started gradually evacuating civilians from the Gaza corridor areas, but that this would take time.
In Kibbutz Mifalsim and Sderot, evacuations were halted due to security concerns that some Hamas terrorists might still be hiding nearby in ambush.
The IDF has struck a variety of command centers, tunnels, and 10 large buildings. Hagari said at a press conference that airstrikes would significantly intensify and would eliminate all Hamas terror infrastructure, all houses of terror commanders, and all symbols of Hamas' rule.
So far, the IDF has killed over four hundred of Gaza terrorists, wounded thousands, and captured dozens.
Gaza evacuation
He expected that tens of thousands of Gazan civilians would be evacuated from their homes starting Sunday, possibly finishing the evacuation sometime Monday, as IDF air strikes, but also artillery strikes would escalate. The IDF plans to bring in large numbers of buses for the evacuation, but each village is only being evacuated once security forces are confident that there will not be a group ambush from Hamas terrorists remaining in ambush.
Within those targets, the IDF has identified an increased use by terror groups of mosques and other civilian locations to host its military activities, in violation of international law.
At his press conference, Hagari noted that Hamas was systematically violating international law when it killed and kidnapped women, elderly persons, and children.
Hagari said, "Hamas carried out the worst massacre of Israeli civilians in Israeli history. Hamas was more barbaric than ISIS."
“We will not forget. We will target Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists wherever they will be in Gaza,” he declared.
He said that the IDF continues to thwart attempts by Hamas to penetrate Israel by land and sea, with ongoing aerial and troop operations.
The IDF also launched a website with names and faces of killed IDF soldiers.
The government appointed Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch to negotiate on its behalf with Hamas and any third parties regarding the hostage situation.
When asked if the IDF would slow its attack on Hamas to avoid potentially accidentally hitting Israeli hostages, he implied that there would be no slowdown, but that the intelligence services would do their best to avoid this if possible.