Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Palestinian civilians in Gaza were “responsible” for the Saturday attack by Hamas.

“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians [being] not aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true,” Herzog said Friday. “They could have risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’état.”

“I agree there are many innocent Palestinians who don’t agree with this, but if you have a missile in your goddamn kitchen and you want to shoot it at me, am I allowed to defend myself? We have to defend ourselves, we have the full right to do so,” he added.

The Israeli president made the comments while calling for over 1 million people in northern Gaza to evacuate in 24 hours. The evacuation was first announced to Gaza residents via leaflets from the Israel Defense Forces.

“Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields,” the leaflets read. “This evacuation is for your own safety. You will be able to return to Gaza City only when another announcement permitting it is made.”

Hamas has told people in Gaza to ignore the evacuation order.

“Israel is removing Palestinians from their homes and lands for a second time, and we have responded to the Zionist crimes by targeting them and Ben Gurion,” Abu Obaida, spokesperson of Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, said. “Displacement and exile are not for us, Israel is carrying out psychological warfare through the threats and their dark history, which shows they carry out crimes and killings as a form of collective punishment.”

The United Nations has called the evacuation “impossible,” due to the large number of people asked to leave the area, according to CNN. John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, called the evacuation a “tall order.”

“We understand what they’re trying to do: They’re trying to move civilians out of harm’s way and giving them fair warning. Now it’s a tall order. It’s a million people and very urban, dense environment. It’s already a combat zone. So I don’t think anybody’s underestimating the challenge here of effecting that evacuation,” Kirby told CNN.

The war between Hamas and Israel started on Saturday when Hamas soldiers attacked Israel from Gaza. Hamas killed over 1,000 people and took over 100 hostages in that attack, according to NPR. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by many countries including the U.S., Israel and those in the European Union. Since the beginning of the war, Israel says Hamas killed 1,300 people. The Palestinian health ministry reports 1,800 killed in Gaza.

    • Veltoss@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Absolutely. Their language has been ramping up every day. It’s clear everyone in charge do not see Palestinian civilians as people and couldn’t give less of a shit about them.

      They aren’t giving bombing warnings anymore either at least most of the time by their own admission. Yet people keep pushing that misinformation because they saw a comment on reddit about it one time. They’re just bombing civilians and leveling entire neighborhoods.

      This is going to be fallujah on steroids as far as how the soldiers treat civilians as enemies on sight.

    • blazeknave@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s literally the justification being used by Hamas (and “people merely supporting Palestinian civilians, across the Internet”) for the slaughter, rape, and kidnapping of a thousand civilians.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, it’s funny but a nation need not be political:

      A nation is a large type of social organization where a collective identity has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, territory or society. Some nations are constructed around ethnicity (see ethnic nationalism) while others are bound by political constitutions (see civic nationalism and multiculturalism).

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation

  • zerfuffle@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    If the Palestinian nation is responsible for the attacks on Israel, then the Israeli nation must be responsible for decades of apartheid… Right?

    It can’t be true that civilians weren’t aware of the oppression or not involved, right? They could have risen up and fought against the evil regime that’s committed to apartheid, right?

      • atetulo@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        insert family guy skin color meme

        Just another fine example of whiter people getting their way at the expense of darker ones.

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    1 year ago

    Did anyone expect him to say anything else? After decades of Israel stealing Palestinian land, Israel finally got their opening for all out genocide of Palestinians. Coincidence? Hardly likely.

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      This is why I find it very hard to believe that the Hamas attack truly caught them off guard. They have one of the best intelligence agencies in the world and they DIDN’T know it was coming? And there’s reports that they were warned ahead of time? Seems fishy to me

  • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Israel has already murdered an estimated 500 children “defending themselves”, in the past week.

  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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    This is why they have meltdowns when you question them about civilian deaths. They don’t believe in the concept.

  • Letstakealook@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    You heard him, 1 million children are responsible for the attack. Fuck Israel. Israelis are the ones responsible for the attack. You reap what you sow.

    • Ab_intra@lemmy.world
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      I don’t agree with killing civilians but you are right. What did they think would happen when they blockade a whole city and oppress the people? They build illegal settlements that is by condemned by the international community.

      The thing that annoys me the most is that when Palestinians are killed we don’t hear that much about it. And now the Israelis are killing thousands of most likely innocent people. But I will give it to the israelis I do understand their anger towards Hamas but not all the Palestinians, most of them are just civilians trying to live their lifes…

      • atetulo@lemm.ee
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        What did they think would happen when they blockade a whole city and oppress the people?

        They thought they could do whatever they want and any retaliation would be a golden ticket to massacre Palestinians.

        And they are correct. Nobody is going to stand in their way. Nobody is going to offer anything more than ‘condemnation.’

  • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world
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    It’s interesting that these far-right Israelis aren’t even trying to keep the mask on any more. I guess they’re counting on Western nations to support them no matter how vile the things they say are, and how barbaric the actions of the IDF are.

    There seems to be a shift in sentiment underway, not for the political class in the West, but amongst the people. I hope the politicians get the fucking message soon before thousands more are murdered.

    • atetulo@lemm.ee
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      I guess they’re counting on Western nations to support them no matter how vile the things they say are

      And they’re correct. The US government at least does not care about its citizens one iota. We are workhorses for the ruling class’ agenda, and they have decided long ago that Israel gets to rule.

    • tym@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Ukraine has taught a lot of evil decision makers exactly what will be tolerated. The future is one of zero nuanced opinion. Scary shit.

  • Ab_intra@lemmy.world
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    He can go fuck himself. 2 + millions are not the ones that attacked Israel. There is a lot of Palestinians that are against Hamas… But I do understand the hatred they have towards Israel. Who would not hate someone that kills your people? That is for both sides by the way. I hate hamas for what they did.

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    They could have risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime

    Thats what theyve been doing. Rising up against Netanyahu’s evil regime.

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    1 year ago

    Israel is a genocidal, white supremacist apartheid state. They have shown multiple times that they have no interest in peace and only in subjugation. The country needs to be dismantled and a single state solution enacted.

  • t�m@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    That last name with what is being said is like history repeating it self ironically.

  • Lemmylaugh@lemmy.ml
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    Unpopular opinion. Wouldn’t a one state be a better solution. Like most of other developed nations that are multi cultural? After 5 or 6 generations they would all identify as one nation with different backgrounds. It definitely works in modern nations now.

    • Risk@feddit.uk
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      It probably would have led to the best outcome if it had been one state from the start, when Israel was established. God knows if it’d work now.