Politicians and commentators have been likening Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel to the events of September 11, 2001, highlighting the targeting of civilians and its psychological impact on the nation.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently made such a comparison in Tel Aviv, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed him images from last weekend’s terrorist attack that depicted babies dead from multiple gunshot wounds, people burned alive, and soldiers beheaded.
“We say this with regard to 9/11 — if you look at this in proportion to the size of Israel’s population, this is the equivalent of ten 9/11s. That’s how big and how devastating this attack has been,” Blinken said, according to the Daily Mail.
Nearly 3,000 people were confirmed killed as a result of the 9/11 attacks. At the time, the United States had a population of roughly 285 million people.
As of Friday, at least 1,300 Israelis and foreign nationals, including at least 27 U.S. citizens, were reportedly killed, and thousands more were injured during Hamas’ brazen assault on southern Israel, which included the firing of thousands of rockets and some 1,500 Hamas fighters infiltrating the country, according to CBS News.
Israel’s current population stands at about 9.4 million.
Since the attack, Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes have killed more than 2,200 people in Gaza and injured thousands more, with numbers expected to climb as the Israeli military prepares for a likely ground invasion of the territory, per ABC News.
“I could speculate but not give you any kind of clear definitive answer,” Blinken said about Hamas’ objectives, per the Daily Mail. “There are a number of possible explanations — we have not heard from [Hamas] what their goals are.”
“In many ways, the simplest explanation may be the most compelling — this is pure evil,” Blinken concluded.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Hamas spokesperson Khaled Qadomi claimed his organization’s attack on Israel was a response to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians over many decades.
“We want the international community to stop atrocities in Gaza, against Palestinian people, our holy sites like Al-Aqsa. All these things are the reason behind starting this battle,” Qadomi told Al Jazeera.
Addressing the plight of Palestinian civilians caught in the Israeli airstrikes, Blinken laid the blame for any civilian casualties squarely at the feet of Hamas.
“I think it’s first important for another fundamental issue that makes this complicated — Hamas continues to use civilians as human shields,” Blinken said, per the Daily Mail. “That’s something that’s not new, something that they’ve always done intentionally — putting civilians in harm’s way to try to protect themselves or protect their infrastructure or protect their weapons.”