An awful day in an awful week

The Inferno, day 6

“Yahya Sinwar, the ruler of the Gaza Strip, decided on this horrible attack, and therefore he and the entire system under him are dead men.” —IDF Chief of Staff

The Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv

News:

Israel girds for “long war” as death toll from Hamas attack passes 1,300. The reason they haven’t finished counting the dead is that the recovery units are still trying to piece together the limbs and flesh.

The death toll among US citizens has been revised upward: At least 25 American citizens have died.

The French toll is 13 dead and 17 missing, including four children.

The Gaza death toll is now more than 1,400, according to the health ministry.

Anthony Blinken is in Tel Aviv. “The message I bring with me is this: you may strong enough on your own to defend yourselves but as long as America exists you will never have to.” He also said that how Israel defends itself “matters” and “it is so important to take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians.”

He’ll visit Jordan tomorrow to meet King Abdullah and Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority. Abbas, by the way, has not condemned the attacks and has blamed them on the neglect of Palestinian grievances. Then he’s traveling to Qatar, where senior Hamas leaders sun themselves and escape the bombing they’ve brought on their own people.

Update: Abbas has demanded “the immediate end of the aggression” against the Palestinian people. He “insisted on the rejection of the practices of killing civilians or mistreating them on both sides.” He stressed that the PLO, to which his party Fatah belongs, but not Hamas, was the “only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, who renounce violence and adhere to international legitimacy.”

The Biden Administration has warned Iran not to escalate the conflict between Tehran’s proxy Hamas and Israel. “We made it clear to the Iranians: Be careful.”

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower will be arriving in the Mediterranean soon on a pre-planned mission “and she certainly will be an available asset if needed,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

The UK military is being deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean. RAF surveillance aircraft will begin patrols to help track emerging threats to regional security, and the Royal Navy will deploy, in the coming days, a P8 aircraft, two Royal Navy ships, three Merlin helicopters and the Royal Marines, on standby, “to deliver practical support and offer deterrence and assurance.” The UK military in Israel and Cyprus will be bolstered “to support contingency planning and neighboring countries dealing with instability.”