Operation Swords of Iron: What happened on days 6-7?

Israel will destroy Hamas, no matter how long it takes, and will finish the war stronger, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an unusual address on Friday night.

"This is just the beginning," he said. "Our enemies have only begun paying the price and I will not say more. This is just the beginning."

Lapid: Netanyahu sent Israel into a frenzy for nothing

Opposition head Yair Lapid attacked Netanyahu for not giving any new information while inducing anxiety among Israelis for an unusual address during Shabbat. 

"How can Israel's prime minister send an entire nation into a frenzy for an unusual Friday night statement only to then say nothing on the hostages, the North, the evacuations," Lapid charged.

"A prime minister should not make these statements unless he has new information."

לא ייתכן שראש ממשלת ישראל יכניס מדינה שלמה לסחרור חרדה בהמתנה להצהרתו בשישי בלילה בזמן של חירום ואז לא יגיד דבר חדש לא על משפחות החטופים, לא על חזית הצפון, לא על המפונים. הצהרות כאלה לא עושה ראש ממשלה אלא אם כן יש לו מידע חדש להביא לעמו ולארצו.

— יאיר לפיד - Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) October 13, 2023

During his short address, Netanyahu also stressed that Israel, through talks with US Secretary of State Lloyd Austin, is "ensuring the continuation of fighting" with American supply on its way to Israel.

Two Palestinians were killed in the West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Witnesses told Reuters that the father and son were shot when Israelis opened fire at the funeral of four Palestinians who were killed by armed civilians and Israeli soldiers in the village of Qusra, near the northern city of Nablus, on Wednesday.

Four Israelis were in serious condition after being wounded by a rocket landing in the southern city of Sderot, Magen David Adom said Thursday.

A woman in her 20s and a man in his 30s were rushed to Barzilai Medical Center for treatment along with another man who was injured by rocket shrapnel. 

Another Sderot man was wounded while seeking shelter.

A Magen David Adom ambulance was heavily damaged during the barrage on Sderot, the MDA director-general said, while parts of a building were damaged in the rocket fire.

This is a developing story.

To show his solidarity with the Jewish state as it battles Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Israel on Thursday and met immediately with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu and Blinken are set to give a statement at 1:30 p.m. local time that can be watched live below.

“We’re here and we are not going anywhere,” Blinken said as he shook Netanyahu’s hand and placed a comforting arm on his shoulder.

“Good to see you,” he said, adding “Sorry that is under these circumstances.”

Schools across Israel are set to resume remote learning starting from next week on Sunday, October 15, the Education Ministry confirmed on Thursday.

The decision was made in order to facilitate a return to school which is seen as crucial to "national solidarity and resilience." 

Universities in Israel also announced on Thursday the higher education semester will be postponed by a month and is set to begin on November 5, 2023. 

The date is subject to change, the universities noted.

There is no other word for what I saw in Be’eri: carnage.

Destruction and death littered the air and the ground.

Cars, or the burnt carcasses of what was left of them, were strewn on bushes or on top of trees instead of being neatly parked by the roadside.

Two specific cars had been so disfigured and bent around one another that it was almost impossible to tell them apart.

One car door lay several meters from its body as if it had been bitten off and flung into a storm – the storm that tore this village apart and possibly ended its existence (it is unclear whether village survivors will return even after the current war ends).

Four Israelis were in serious condition after being wounded by a rocket landing in the southern city of Sderot, Magen David Adom said Thursday.

A woman in her 20s and a man in his 30s were rushed to Barzilai Medical Center for treatment along with another man who was injured by rocket shrapnel. 

Another Sderot man was wounded while seeking shelter.

Several rockets were reported to have landed inside Sderot, the municipality said in an initial statement.

A Magen David Adom ambulance was heavily damaged during the barrage on Sderot, the MDA director-general said, while parts of a building were damaged in the rocket fire.

This is a developing story.

Four out of five Jewish Israelis believe the government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are to blame for the mass infiltration of Hamas terrorists and the massacre of Israel's South, a new Dialog Center poll released on Thursday found.

An overwhelming majority of 86% of respondents, including 79% of coalition supporters, said the surprise attack from Gaza is a failure of the country's leadership, while a staggering 92% said the war is causing anxiety.

Furthermore, almost all of the respondents (94%) believe the government has responsibility for the lack of security preparedness that led to the assault on the South, with over 75% saying the government holds most of the responsibility.

Netanyahu must resign after war's conclusion, Israelis say

The survey, which polled 620 Israeli Jews from across the country, also found that a majority of respondents believed Netanyahu should resign following the conclusion of Operation Shields of Iron.

A slim majority of 56% said Netanyahu must resign at the end of the war, with 28% of coalition voters agreeing with this view.

The IDF published a photo on Thursday of an ISIS flag left by infiltrating Hamas terrorists in the ravaged southern kibbutz of Sufa.

The IDF will track down and kill Hamas terrorists who committed atrocities in the massacre of southern Israel and shared it on social media, IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Thursday.

In addition, Hagari revealed that ISIS flags were also found on the uniforms of killed terrorists.

Israel's coordinator on hostages and missing persons, Gal Hirsch, said he spoke with his US counterpart Roger Carstens and will meet with his deputy in Israel on Thursday.