Israeli support for Gaza offensive is strong, despite military suffering first significant casualties
Israel's national mood appears to be solidly behind a war against Hamas, Sky's Deborah Haynes writes, adding the population seems willing to tolerate the attrition to respond to what they believe is an existential threat.
Wednesday 1 November 2023 16:19, UK
Public support in Israel for the war against Hamas is strong, even as the military suffers its first significant casualties of an expanded ground operation inside Gaza.
Eleven Israeli soldiers were killed on Tuesday in combat as troops moved deeper into the Palestinian enclave. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said that 15 of its soldiers have now been killed.
It was the single biggest daily loss of life for the IDF since more than 300 military personnel were killed on 7 October when Hamas launched an unprecedented air, sea and land attack against Israel.
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The horror of that assault, which also left hundreds of civilian men, women and children dead and more than 230 people kidnapped, means the national consensus is that right now Israel has no choice but to fight, no matter how hard and costly.
It is a feeling even held among some of those who typically would urge against conflict.
And it is a mood perhaps felt most strongly among communities living closest to Gaza.
They are no stranger to danger.
Residents of the towns and villages that thread across southern Israel have lived under the constant threat of rocket fire from Hamas.
But the 7 October atrocities created a new reality - undermining confidence in the Israeli security apparatus that is meant to keep them safe, eroding much remaining confidence in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's veteran, embittered prime minister, and regarding Hamas as an entity that can no longer be tolerated.
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It is why the war has three aims: to destroy the militant group, though many question whether this can ever be achieved through military means alone; rescue the hostages; and bring back security to Israel's borders.
Soldiers who spoke with Sky News said they knew the operation would be hard and dangerous, but they said that they had to go into Gaza to stop Hamas from ever being able to attack their country again.
With troops now pushing further into Gaza, the number of casualties will only grow.
But, with the national mood so solidly behind this war, it is a rate of attrition that the population seem willing to tolerate because of the need to respond to what they regard as an existential threat.
Perhaps sensing the need to harden resolve in the wake of the latest military casualties, the prime minister released a new statement reiterating that Israel is in a "difficult war".
"This will be a long war. We have so many important achievements but also painful losses," he said.
"We know that every soldier of ours is an entire world. The entire people of Israel embrace you, the families, from the depth of our heart. We are all with you during your heavy sorrow.
"Our soldiers have fallen in the most just of wars, the war for our home.
"I promise the citizens of Israel: We will complete the work - we will continue until victory."