Jerusalem/Gaza/Washington, October 11 (Press Ki Taquat)
Israeli warplanes bombed Gaza repeatedly overnight ahead of a possible ground offensive to root out Hamas, while US President Joe Biden described the Palestinian militant group’s surprise assault on Israel as ‘sheer evil’ and issued a warning apparently aimed at its Iranian backers.
Israel said dozens of its fighter jets struck more than 200 targets in a neighbourhood of Gaza City that it said had been used by Hamas to launch its unprecedented wave of attacks.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 950 people had been killed and 5,000 injured in the crowded coastal enclave since Saturday, when Hamas gunmen rampaged through parts of southern Israel in the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israel’s history.
Israel’s military said the death toll in Israel had reached 1,200 and more than 2,700 people had been wounded.
“We have sustained extremely heavy casualties,” military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Con
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, speaking to soldiers near the Gaza fence on Tuesday, said: “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. We’ve been controlling the area since Day 2 and we are on the offensive. It will only intensify.” A ground offensive carries risks for Israel, notably to the lives of many hostages held in the narrow, densely populated Gaza Strip which is tightly controlled by Hamas. Washington said it was talking with Israel and Egypt about the idea of safe passage for civilians from Gaza, now under total blockade.
At least 1,000 gunmen who had infiltrated from Gaza had been killed, the Israel Hayom newspaper reported.
Israel withdrew troops from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation and
Two members of Hamas’ political office, Jawad Abu Shammala and Zakaria Abu Maamar, were killed in an air strike in Khan Younis, a Hamas official said.
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.
“Such blatant dehumanization and attempts to bomb a people into submission, to use starvation as a method of warfare, and to eradicate their national existence are nothing less than genocidal,” Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour wrote in a letter to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, seen by Reuters.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, who denounced the Hamas attacks, said: “International humanitarian law is clear: the obligation to take constant care to spare the civilian population and civilian objects remains applicable throughout the attacks.”
has kept it under blockade since Hamas seized power there in 2007. The siege it announced on Monday would keep out food and fuel. rictus said in a video briefing on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The victims were overwhelmingly civilians, gunned down in homes, on streets or at an outdoor dance party. Scores of Israelis and others from abroad were captured and taken to Gaza as hostages, some shown on social media being paraded through the streets.
Israel’s Security Minister said he was stepping up the issuing of firearms to licensed citizens, predicting possible friction between the country’s Arab minority and majority Jews.
Hamas militants holding Israeli soldiers and civilians hostage on Monday threatened to execute a captive for each home in Gaza hit without warning, but there was no indication they had done so.
