Israeli officials are comparing the unprecedented attack on Israel launched by Hamas early Saturday to terrorist attacks in American history, including Sept. 11, 2001, and Pearl Harbor.
Israel’s National Security Cabinet declared official war for the first time since 1973 following the Hamas attacks. The declaration of war will allow the government to carry out “significant military activities,” according to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via Al Jazeera.
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett compared the Hamas attack on Israel to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, saying it would be a “long and difficult” war.
“I think, not unlike Pearl Harbor, it did not take two days for America to get organized. Because this war is not against Hamas only,” Bennett said on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sunday. “The way I view it is — Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, Islamic jihad — our enemies are one front, and they even say that.”
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said that Hamas’s attack on Israel was the nation’s 9/11.
“We already suffered 250 fatalities [which is] like having here, 7,500 fatalities,” Erdan said on Fox News Live on Saturday. “We already have 1,500 casualties. It’s like 50,000 casualties here in the United States.”
“This is our 9/11,” Erdan added. “We are committed to change the equation, to shatter the old paradigm. These animals will pay a heavy price, and they will learn that these atrocities cannot be committed again against our civilians.”
Israeli Defense Forces International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said in an X live forum on Sunday that it has been a “very hard 24 hours.”
“We’ve been talking about Hamas for years, who they really are — they want the annihilation of our state. I think everybody got a taste of who they are yesterday,” Hecht said. “They attacked us on the ground, in the air, and also in the sea. They also didn’t go for military targets; they went for civilians.”
Hecht echoed Erdan’s comparison to 9/11, stating that the IDF plans to respond “very, very severely” to the attacks. He said the attacks violated international law and went against Islam.
“The style of attack is barbaric,” Hecht said. “In a way, this is our 9/11. This is our 9/11. And even more than that, it wasn’t crashing into a building. It is also mutilating and attacking a party that was happening around the Gaza Strip, a nature party, attacking civilians, kidnapping a grandmother. A lot of my friends, a lot of our — nearly everybody in Israel is affected by this. By someone they know missing people, soldiers that have been killed.”
“Hurting children, I mean. It’s just hard to comprehend,” Hecht added. “It makes us all sick.”
Political figures in the United States are also equating Hamas’s actions to the terrorist attack in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.
“So this is the equivalent for Israel of probably what happened in the United States on September 11th. This is probably the worst attack Israel has faced since the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and certainly one of the greatest attacks in the history of the modern state of Israel,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said at a 2024 presidential campaign event in Iowa on Saturday via Florida Politics. “So we’re standing with them. It’s important that in America, we all acknowledge and support their right to defend themselves.”
The Israel Health Ministry said Sunday via several Israeli media outlets that as many as 500 to 600 are dead and 2,000 are injured in Israel. At least 313 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and at least 1,990 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a Sunday update.
Israel’s Embassy to the United States reported that over 100 soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped in Gaza, according to the Jerusalem Post.
In a surprise attack early Saturday, Palestinian militants fired at least 2,200 rockets toward Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces said. Hamas claimed at least 5,000 rockets were fired, all landing in southern and central Israel.
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Bennett said Israeli military forces need to operate “by surprise.”
“We don’t have to play by their rulebook, and the fact that Hamas attacked us here doesn’t mean we have to go straight into there. It means that we can act however we find right,” Bennett said. “I will say that our enemies, to Iran, to Gaza, to anywhere they’re trying to hurt us, we’re going to get them. It’s gonna hurt, and we’re going to hit them back because we have a strong nation. And yeah, we took a huge blow, a huge blow, unimaginable, but we’re strong, and we will prevail.”
