Israeli military ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip, on Monday, halting deliveries of food, fuel and supplies to its 2.3 million people as it pounded the Hamas-ruled territory with waves of airstrikes in retaliation for the militants’ bloody weekend incursion.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip rose to 560 yesterday, the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave said. No fewer than 700 people were killed in Israel.
Dozens were killed and wounded in Israeli attack on Jabalia refugee camp, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Also, nine U.S. citizens were among those killed in the conflict. A U.S. National Security Council spokesperson confirmed the deaths of U.S. citizens in a statement to CNN.
The Hamas-controlled ministry said “560 people were killed and another 2,900 injured” since Saturday’s surprise dawn attack when Hamas militants stormed Israel under a barrage of rocket fire.
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Israel’s air force is focusing its strikes on residential buildings, mosques and public administration buildings in Gaza, Alaraby TV reported. It said Israel was heavily bombarding different parts of the enclave, including Gaza City, Khan Yunis, and Jabalia.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said yesterday that he is “deeply distressed” by Israel’s announcement of a complete siege on the Gaza Strip.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza was extremely dire before these hostilities. Now, it will only deteriorate exponentially,” Guterres said at a news conference yesterday.
He spoke after the Israeli defence minister said he had ordered a cutoff of electricity and deliveries of food, fuel and other supplies to the territory.
A spokesperson for the military wing of Hamas said militants will kill one civilian hostage every time Israel targets civilians in their homes in Gaza “without warning.”
In an audio statement, Abu Obeida, spokesman of the Qassam Brigades, said intense strikes had occurred in civilian areas in Gaza, a densely populated coastal enclave that has been blockaded in the years since Hamas took power there.
“We announce that every targeting of our people who are safe in their homes without warning, we will regretfully meet with the execution of our enemy’s civilian hostages,” Obeida said. He said the executions would be broadcast “in audio and video.”
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Obeida said the message was a “warning” after Israel issued a “full siege” of Gaza and pounded the area with airstrikes after Hamas launched its surprise attack on Saturday, shocking Israelis and many around the world.
More than 1,000 people died after Hamas militants broke through the border fence that separates Israel from the blockaded Gaza Strip and began killing and kidnapping Israelis. At least 700 people were killed in Israel, according to the military, and more than 570 people in Gaza and the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for a swift end to fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian Hamas fighters on Monday during talks in Moscow with Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Russia and the Arab League can help halt the bloodshed in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Lavrov added.
Aboul Gheit also called for an end to the fighting but said such violence would continue as long as the Palestinian problem remained unsolved.
More than two days after Hamas launched its surprise attack, the Israeli military said it had largely gained control in its southern towns where it had been battling Hamas gunmen. Israel’s vaunted military and intelligence apparatus was caught completely off guard by Hamas, resulting in heavy battles in its streets for the first time in decades.
Israeli tanks and drones were deployed to guard breaches in the Gaza border fence to prevent new incursions. Thousands of Israelis were evacuated from more than a dozen towns near Gaza, and the military summoned 300,000 reservists — a massive mobilisation in a short time.
The moves, along with Israel’s formal declaration of war on Sunday, pointed to Israel increasingly shifting to the offensive against Hamas, threatening greater destruction in the densely populated, impoverished Gaza Strip.
A major question remains whether Israel will launch a ground assault into the tiny Mediterranean coastal territory, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties.
Israel and Hamas have had repeated conflicts in past years, often sparked by tensions around a Jerusalem holy site. This time, the context has become potentially more explosive, and both sides talk of shattering with violence years-long Israeli-Palestinian deadlock left by the moribund peace process.
Guterres called for UN access to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza’s 2.3 million residents. He pressed the international community to provide immediate support for the humanitarian effort.
His comments came as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held back-to-back telephone calls with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, according to Erdogan’s press office.
Erdogan and Abbas discussed the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
In his call with Herzog “President Erdogan emphasised that any step that could harm the people of Gaza collectively and indiscriminately will further increase the suffering and spiral of violence in the region”.
Erdogan also told his Israeli counterpart that it’s “necessary to act with commonsense and that establishing tranquility in the region as soon as possible is of great importance for the well-being of the entire region”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he and French President Emmanuel Macron will discuss the situation in Israel with U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Scholz, who was hosting Macron at a joint German-French Cabinet retreat in Hamburg, called Hamas’ attack on Israel “barbaric”.
But he added that Germany, France, the U.S. and the UK agree that there must not be a “conflagration” in the region, and “no one should further fuel terror in this situation”.
Macron pledged his “full support and solidarity for Israel”.
He spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the second time in three days and spoke over the weekend to Abbas and the leaders of Lebanon, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
Hamas has claimed that it is not scared of the U.S. moving in an aircraft carrier strike group after the militant group’s attack on Israel.
The U.S. is moving in the USS Gerald R. Ford, the navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, along with around 5,000 sailors and deck of warplanes, as well as naval cruisers and destroyers.
The aircraft carrier will be able to respond to a range of possible situations, including stopping more weapons from reaching Hamas and conducting surveillance.