ISRAEL VOWS COMPLETE SIEGE ON GAZA AS IT STRIKES THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORY AFTER INCURSION* BY HAMAS: “‘I ask you to stand firm because we are going to change the Middle East,’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told authorities from the south Monday. ‘I know you have been through terrible and difficult things. What Hamas will go through will be difficult and terrible … we have only just begun.’”

* “Incursion” is a nice touch by AP’s headline writer: “Eylon Levy, a former spokesperson for Israeli President Isaac Herzog, posted online: ‘It’s no exaggeration to say yesterday was the darkest day in Jewish history since the end of the Holocaust.’ Lazar Berman, The Times of Israel’s diplomatic correspondent, made the same reference: ‘October 7, 2023 saw the most Jews slaughtered in a single day since the Holocaust.’ The claim appears to be accurate. There have been bloody days in Israel’s history and for Jews around the world since 1945, but none has had a civilian death toll this high. Israeli wars have had higher casualty totals overall, but none has seen this many civilians murdered in a single day.”