In retaliation for a violent incursion by Hamas militants, Israel increased airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and sealed it off from food, fuel, and other supplies on Monday, as the death toll rose to nearly 1,600 on both sides. Hamas also escalated the conflict by threatening to execute captured Israelis if attacks without prior warning targeted civilians.
On the third day of the conflict, Israel was still discovering bodies from Hamas's weekend assault on southern Israeli towns. After a lengthy hostage standoff with gunmen, rescue personnel discovered 100 bodies in the tiny farming community of Be'eri, accounting for roughly 10 percent of its population. Tens of thousands of Gazans fled their homes as relentless bombardment destroyed structures.
The Israeli military said it had largely gained control in the south after the attack caught its vaunted military and intelligence apparatus entirely off guard and led to fierce battles in its streets for the first time in decades. Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza claim to be detaining more than 130 Israeli soldiers and civilians.
To prevent further incursions, Israeli tanks and drones were deployed to monitor breaches in the Gaza border fence. Thousands of Israelis were evacuated from over a dozen communities near Gaza, and the military called up 300,000 reservists in a rapid mobilization.
The moves, coupled with Israel's formal declaration of war on Sunday, indicate that Israel is shifting to the offensive against Hamas, threatening greater devastation in the densely populated, impoverished Gaza Strip.
In a nationally televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated, "We have just begun to strike Hamas." "What we do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations."
As the Israeli military drew its forces closer to the border, the issue arose as to whether or not it would launch a ground assault into the tiny Mediterranean coastal territory. The final ground assault occurred in 2014.
According to the Israeli military, more than 900 people have already been slain in Israel. According to local authorities, more than 680 people have been slain in Gaza, including hundreds of Hamas fighters. Both parties have suffered thousands of injuries.
Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas' armed branch, stated Monday night in response to Israel's aerial attacks that the group will execute one Israeli civilian hostage each time Israel targets civilians in their homes in Gaza "without prior warning."
The Israeli foreign minister, Eli Cohen, warned Hamas not to harm the detainees, stating, "This war crime will not be forgiven." Netanyahu designated an ex-military commander to manage the captive and missing persons crisis.
In the past decade, Israel and Hamas have engaged in recurrent conflicts, frequently triggered by tensions surrounding a Jerusalem holy site. This time, the situation is more potentially combustible. The decades-long Israeli-Palestinian impasse left by the stalled peace process is a subject of discussion on both sides.
Hamas's unexpected attack over the weekend resulted in a death toll not seen since the 1973 conflict with Egypt and Syria. This sparked calls to crush Hamas regardless of the cost, rather than continuing to attempt to contain it in Gaza. The current Israeli government is the most conservative in its history, with ministers who staunchly oppose a Palestinian state.
Hamas, for its part, says it is prepared for a protracted fight to end an Israeli occupation it deems intolerable. Desperation has grown among Palestinians, many of whom see nothing to lose under interminable Israeli control and increasing settler depredations in the West Bank, the blockade in Gaza and what they see as the world's apathy.
Hamas attacks elicit severe Israeli reprisals
Monday's attacks by both parties resulted in additional scenes of devastation. In the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon, a man with a crutch and an older boy joined evacuees being led away from a street after a rocket destroyed the front of a home.
In Gaza's Jebaliya refugee camp, Palestinians carried dead bodies through dense crowds of men in the debris.
Two Jerusalem neighborhoods were struck by a barrage of rockets launched from Gaza on Monday evening, an indication of Hamas's influence. According to Israeli media, seven were injured.
After issuing evacuation orders, Israeli aircraft bombarded Rimal, a residential and commercial neighborhood in central Gaza City, with heavy fire. The building hosting the headquarters of the Palestinian Telecommunications Company was destroyed as a result of continuous explosions.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported early Tuesday that Israeli airstrikes on Gaza destroyed 790 homes and severely damaged 5,330. Damage to three water and sanitation facilities has deprived 400,000 people of service.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued an order for a "complete siege" of Gaza, stating that food and fuel would be denied entry and electricity would be turned off.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned that Israel's quarantine of Gaza would be "catastrophic" for the Palestinians.
"There is no doubt that collective punishment is a violation of international law," he told Associated Press. If and when it leads to the death of wounded children in hospitals due to a lack of energy, electricity, and supplies, it may constitute war crimes.
The Israeli siege will leave Gaza almost exclusively dependent on the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which has a lower cargo capacity than other Israeli crossings.
More than 2 tons of medical supplies were sent to Gaza by the Egyptian Red Crescent, according to a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. Efforts are currently underway to coordinate food and other deliveries.
Thousands of residents of Gaza continued to evacuate. The United Nations reported on Tuesday that more than 187,000 of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, the highest number since Israel's 2014 air and ground offensive uprooted about 400,000.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) shelters more than 137 thousand persons in schools across the territory. Families have taken in approximately 41 thousand others.
An Israeli airstrike early on Monday morning killed 19 persons, including women and children, in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, according to Dr. Talat Barhoum of the local Al-Najjar Hospital.
According to Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, hundreds of Hamas militants were buried under the debris of buildings destroyed by Israel in the past 48 hours. His assertions could not be verified.
Monday's exchanges along Israel's northern border prompted fears that the conflict could extend to a new front.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants snuck into Israel from Lebanon, prompting Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah, a militant organization in Lebanon, reported that five of its members were killed and retaliated by firing rockets and mortars at two Israeli army bases across the border.
After breaking through Israeli barriers with explosives at daybreak Saturday, an estimated 1,000 Hamas gunmen rampaged for hours, gunning down civilians and snatching people in towns, along motorways and at a techno music festival attended by thousands in the desert. According to the military, Palestinian militants have also launched approximately 4,400 projectiles at Israel.
Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua, a spokesman for Hamas, told the Associated Press on Monday morning that the group's militants continued fighting outside Gaza and had captured additional Israelis.
He stated that the group seeks the release of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, which has in the past consented to lopsided exchange deals in which large numbers of prisoners were exchanged for individual captives or even the remains of soldiers.
There are soldiers and civilians among the captives, including women, children, and older individuals, the majority of whom are Israelis but also some of other nationalities.
Since 2007, when it expelled forces loyal to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, Hamas has governed Gaza unchallenged, despite the blockade and four previous wars with Israel.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, severe movement restrictions entered their fourth day. The Israeli government has sealed off crossings into the occupied territory and shut down checkpoints, preventing movement between cities. U.N. reports that since the beginning of the incursion, 15 Palestinians have been killed in clashes between Palestinians hurling rocks and Israeli forces in the territory.
Adwan provided a dispatch from Rafah, Gaza Strip. Isabel DeBre and Julia Frankel contributed to this report from Jerusalem; Wafaa Shurafa from Gaza City; Tia Goldenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel; Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb from Beirut; Samy Magdy from Cairo; and Amir Vahdat from Tehran, Iran.
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