Over the weekend, Hamas militants fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of fighters into Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday, killing hundreds and stunning the country. Israel said it is now at war with Hamas and launched airstrikes in Gaza, vowing to make Hamas pay an “unprecedented price”.
Palestinians fled in a mass exodus on Friday from northern Gaza after Israel’s military told some one million people to evacuate to the southern part of the besieged territory ahead of an expected ground invasion in retaliation for the surprise attack by the ruling Hamas militant group nearly a week ago.
The UN warned that ordering almost half the Gaza population to flee en masse would be calamitous, and it urged Israel to reverse the unprecedented directive. As airstrikes hammered the territory throughout the day, families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with possessions streamed down a main road out of Gaza City.
Williams’ initial post has more than 16,000 likes and has been viewed over a million times. However, it created a stir, sparking an angry response from some users asking for it to be removed from the platform.
One user commented: “Killing civilians on the streets, taking women and children hostage is not the act of a freedom fighter. They are crimes under international law and deserve to be seen as such. That stipulation applies to all countries! You do not have to favour one side or the other on this…”
Another said: “Over 250 bodies at the Music Festival for Peace. And you support that? Ukrainians aren’t attacking civilians. Palestinians are.”
One person wrote: “Saw that clip of the naked, broken girl paraded around on the back of a truck. Is that what you are defending?”
And another added: “Given that there’s a lot of footage of Hamas slaughtering innocent civilians, you should be ashamed of supporting their actions.”
But there were many comments in support of Williams, saying things like: “Double standards and hypocrisy.”
Another in support said: “Well said my brother, Palestine will be free, inshallah. The people of Palestine have had to put up with this for 75 years - they finally stood up and said enough is enough. Alhamdulillah, victory will be for Palestine.”
And one person said: “Respect you even more.”
In 2021, Williams called for a boycott of the Winter Olympics in China over the treatment of the Uighur ethnic minority in the northwest of the country. The region’s Muslim community has been the target of human rights abuses by the Chinese Communist Party.
The Israeli government formally declared war on Sunday and gave the green light for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas for its surprise attack, as the military tried to crush fighters still in southern towns and intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The death toll passed 1,100 and thousands were wounded on both sides.
More than 24 hours after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion out of Gaza, Israeli forces were still trying to defeat the last groups of militants holed up in several towns. At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel — a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades — and more than 400 have been killed in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes pound the territory.
The declaration of war portended greater fighting ahead, and a major question was whether Israel would launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties. Meanwhile, in northern Israel, a brief exchange of strikes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group fanned fears that the fighting could expand into a wider regional war.
