Israeli public broadcaster Kan reports the weekend death toll has reached 1,200
Jerusalem/Gaza: Israel has vowed to for a greater response to an attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas with a ground offensive, while US President Joe Biden pledged support for Israel and issued a warning to anyone seeking to take advantage of the situation, a Reuters report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
Hamas militants holding Israeli soldiers and civilians hostage have threatened to execute a captive for each home in Gaza hit without warning, but despite Israel razing sections of Gaza and more airstrikes overnight there was no indication Hamas had carried out its threat.
Conflict
Israeli military has said dozens of its fighter jets had struck more than 200 targets overnight in a neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 900 people had been killed and 4,600 wounded in the crowded coastal enclave. Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported the weekend death toll had reached 1,200.
On Saturday, Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip overran parts of southern Israel, in the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israel’s history.
“Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be. We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground,” said Israeli Defence Minister Yoavv Gallant, speaking to soldiers near the Gaza fenceIsrael has called up an unprecedented 300,000 reservists, as Israeli airlines added flights to bring reservists back to the country.
How a secretive Hamas commander masterminded the attack on Israel. A survivor of seven Israeli assassination attempts, the most recent in 2021, Mohammed Deif rarely speaks and never appears in public so when Hamas’s TV channel announced he was about to speak on Saturday, Palestinians knew something significant was afoot.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israeli strikes had since Saturday destroyed more than 22,600 residential units and 10 health facilities and damaged 48 schools.
Two members of Hamas’ political office were killed in an air strike in Khan Younis, a Hamas official said. They were the first senior Hamas members killed since Israel began pounding the enclave.
On Israel’s northern border, a salvo of rockets was fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel, prompting Israeli shelling in return,
Human impact
A 21-year-old Israeli woman said she had “no tears left” after her father, sister, grandmother and cousin went missing on Saturday and video showed her 12-year-old brother being taken by gunmen.
Gazans like Plestia Alaqad, 22, are running for their lives. Gazan rescuers pulled the body of a four-year-old girl and other dead from the rubble of a municipal building where she and many others had taken shelter.
International reaction
*President Joe Biden called the attacks by Hamas “an act of sheer evil” and at least 14 US citizens were killed. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will arrive in Israel on Thursday, in a show of solidarity.
Egypt is moving to prevent a mass exodus south from the Gaza Strip, as Israeli bombardments halted crossings.
European Union foreign ministers met to try to resolve divisions over whether to continue aid payments to Palestinians.
Insights
How a secretive Hamas commander masterminded the attack on Israel. A survivor of seven Israeli assassination attempts, the most recent in 2021, Mohammed Deif rarely speaks and never appears in public so when Hamas’s TV channel announced he was about to speak on Saturday, Palestinians knew something significant was afoot.
Hamas attack turned an Israeli kibbutz “paradise” into hell. Hamas waged a campaign of deception to pull off its stunning attack.
Palestinian statehood, Jerusalem and refugees lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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