The casualty toll in the conflict has crossed 1,100 since Palestinian fighters launched a massive surprise onslaught from Gaza on Israel on July 8. This attack was the worst on Israeli soil in half a century.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a “long and difficult” war as he sent thousands of troops to fight the last remaining Hamas fighters in the south and the air force resumed bombing targets in the Gaza Strip. This conflict is being considered the biggest escalation in decades.
According to Reuters, 700 Israelis have been killed in the most recent battle, while over 400 people have been killed in Gaza. Twenty children are among the dead in Gaza.
Civilians’ dead were found scattered across roads and in town squares on Sunday, prompting Israel to deploy tens of thousands of troops to engage remaining Hamas fighters in the south.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters the night following the attack, “The enemy is still on the ground,” and that Israel was bolstering its military presence near the Gaza Strip.
As the Israeli army fought to capture the desert areas around the coastal enclave, free Israeli hostages, and evacuate the area around Gaza, fierce gun fights broke out.
A day after hundreds of Hamas gunmen launched their stunning onslaught and flooded into Israel using trucks, boats, and even motorised paragliders, Hagari pledged, “We’ll reach each and every community until we kill every terrorist in Israel.”
Images of bleeding hostages and heartbroken family members appealing for the state to rescue them circulated on social media, causing widespread shock and dismay in Israel after at least 100 Israelis were taken by Hamas and abducted into Gaza.
Yifat Zailer, 37, expressed horror at seeing her female cousin and the woman’s children, ages 9 months and 3 years, on viral video footage from Gaza.
“That’s the only confirmation we have,” she told AFP, her voice cracking with grief. She continued by saying that there was no news of her cousin’s husband or her elderly parents.
“After the army took control of the kibbutz, they weren’t at home,” according to her. We have to infer that they were kidnapped… Please update us on their health and return to us as soon as possible. They’re just bystanders, normal people.
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading rocket and artillery fire.
After the worst attack in years at the hands of Palestinian gunmen on Israel on Sunday, Israel and the powerful military group Hezbollah in Lebanon exchanged artillery and rocket fire.
Around 500 Israelis were killed on Saturday after Palestinian militants launched a multi-pronged onslaught on Israeli towns, and more than 300 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes.
Since Hezbollah in Lebanon is an armed group sponsored by Iran that has already contended with Israel, the severity of the strike has raised concerns of a wider conflict in the region.
On Sunday, Hezbollah claimed that “in solidarity” with the Palestinian people, it had fired guided rockets and artillery at three sites in the Shebaa Farms.
In support of the Palestinian militants, senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine declared, “Our history, our guns and our rockets are with you” at a gathering in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh on the outskirts of Beirut.
Without identifying the perpetrators, the Lebanese army said that shells and rockets had been fired from southern Lebanon onto “occupied Lebanese territory,” and that many persons had been injured as a result of Israeli fire in retaliation.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Tehran’s biggest regional partner, fought a war with Israel in 2006 and said that its “guns and rockets” support Hamas. Israeli military spokeswoman: “We recommend Hezbollah not to come into this and I don’t think they will.”
After 24 hours of battle following a surprise, multi-pronged attack that included missile barrages and gangs of gunmen who overran army bases and raided border towns, Israeli security forces were still engaged with Hamas gunmen in southern Israel.
“I can’t believe how young my two daughters are. Yoni Asher, whose wife and two young kids were abducted by gunmen while on a visit to her mother, said, “They’re not even five years old and three years old.”
Israel’s military, under scrutiny for its inability to prevent the strike, claimed they had eliminated hundreds of militants and captured dozens more captives and retaken control of most infiltration locations along security barriers.
An Israeli military spokeswoman told reporters, “We’re going to be attacking Hamas severely and this is going to be a long, long haul.”
Tens of thousands of soldiers have been positioned around Gaza, a small strip home to 2.3 million Palestinians, and the military has begun evacuating any Israelis residing near the border of the enclave.
I’ve been through five wars, and this is the fifth. The fighting needs to end. Palestinian wheelchair user Qassab al-Attar from Gaza remarked, “I don’t want to keep feeling this” as his brothers dragged him to safety from Israeli shelling.
Saturday morning’s Hamas invasion was the largest and deadliest incursion into Israel since Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack 50 years ago to retake territory lost in the Yom Kippur war.
US will always support Israel, says Biden.
On Saturday, Vice President Joe Biden assured Israel that the United States has its back and warned that Israel’s enemies shouldn’t use the assaults to their advantage.
The dispute has the potential to derail US-backed efforts to improve ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a realignment in security that poses a threat to Palestinian aspirations for independence and could isolate Hamas’ primary backer, Iran.
In the meantime, US Vice President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a phone conversation on Sunday.
On Saturday, Israel saw its bloodiest day in decades as Hamas fighters rampaged across the country’s cities. On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken indicated Washington would announce further support for Israel.
On Sunday, Israeli jets pounded Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians. Both sides have reportedly lost hundreds of people.
Hostages
Israelis were still reeling from the sight of bloodied dead laying on suburban streets, in vehicles, and in homes on Sunday morning, and wreckage from Saturday’s attack strewn around southern Israeli cities and border settlements.
Dozens of captives, including soldiers and civilians, were taken by Palestinian fighters who later made their way back into Gaza.
Israeli media said that on Sunday, about 30 people who had gone missing after being at a dance party on Saturday when it was attacked came out of hiding.
After past events in which hostages were swapped for many Palestinian inmates, Netanyahu now faces an additional layer of complexity due to the capture of so many Israelis, some of whom were seen being hauled through security checkpoints or transported, bleeding, into Gaza.
Israel’s military said it would evacuate border areas and seek for more militants after Hamas fired fresh rocket salvoes into the country on Sunday, prompting air raid sirens across the south.
Starting shortly after the Hamas attack and continuing through the night and into Sunday, Israeli aircraft pounded Gaza, demolishing not only Hamas offices and training camps but also homes and other facilities in the strip.
Early on Sunday morning, residents of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, combed through the rubble of a mosque. As we were leaving the mosque after midnight prayers, it was bombed. “They terrorised the young, the old, and the females,” stated local Ramez Hneideq.
Escalation
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a Palestinian administration exercises limited self-rule, but is challenged by Hamas, which seeks Israel’s destruction. This escalation comes against the backdrop of rising bloodshed between Israel and Palestinian terrorists.
More Israeli raids and assaults by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages have deteriorated the situation in the West Bank under Netanyahu’s hard-right government, prompting the Palestinian Authority to ask for an urgent meeting of the Arab League.
The peace process has languished for years, and this year in Israeli politics, disagreements over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intentions to reform the country’s judicial system have caused widespread upheaval.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that the attack that had begun in Gaza would soon reach the West Bank and the holy city of Jerusalem. Since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, its residents have endured a blockade imposed by Israel.
“How many times have we warned you that the Palestinian people have been living in refugee camps for 75 years, and you refuse to recognise the rights of our people?”
The United States led Western nations in condemning the attack. This is not the time for any party unfriendly to Israel to exploit these strikes,” Vice President Joe Biden said in a stern warning to Iran and other countries.
Pro-Hamas protests erupted all around the Middle East, as Iran and Hezbollah applauded the assault.
For a country that prides itself on its extensive infiltration and monitoring of militants, Israel’s complete lack of preparation has been described as one of the biggest intelligence disasters in the country’s history.
Investors were expecting a flight to safe-haven assets like gold, which caused the main Tel Aviv Stock Exchange indexes to fall by 6% on Sunday (.TA35), (.TA125).
According to the UN organisation, food supplies in Gaza require humanitarian access.
On Sunday, as Israeli air strikes pummelling the Palestinian enclave of Gaza in response to deadly Hamas attacks, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) urged for the establishment of humanitarian corridors to carry food into Gaza.
“As the conflict intensifies, civilians, including vulnerable children and families, face mounting challenges in accessing essential food supplies,” stated the WFP in Rome.
“WFP urges safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to affected areas, calling on all parties to uphold the principles of humanitarian law … including ensuring access to food.”
About 350,000 Palestinians receive monthly direct food help from the United Nations organisation, while another million receive aid through cash transfers and other humanitarian partners.
The WFP has stated that it is prepared to establish pre-positioned food stocks for displaced persons and those taking refuge in shelters.
“While most shops in the affected areas in Palestine currently maintain one month of food stocks, these risk being depleted swiftly as people buy up food in fear of a prolonged conflict,” according to the report.
After Israel experienced its worst attack in decades at the hands of Hamas fighters on Saturday, when they rampaged through Israeli cities killing 600 and kidnapping hundreds more, Israeli aircraft pounded Gaza on Sunday.
Tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers have been stationed around Gaza, a strip of land home to 2.3 million Palestinians, according to the Israeli military. This comes amid rumours of an impending, massive Israeli invasion of Gaza.
A lady passes by the spot in Tel Aviv, Israel, where a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip fell on October 7, 2023. REUTERS PHOTO
A lady passes by the spot in Tel Aviv, Israel, where a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip fell on October 7, 2023. REUTERS PHOTO
Pakistani anxiety levels are high
The interim foreign minister of Pakistan, Jalil Abbas Jilani, expressed his country’s alarm at the rising violence and the resulting loss of life in the Middle East on Sunday.
After suffering its worst attack in decades on Saturday, when Hamas fighters rampaged through Israeli cities murdering hundreds and kidnapping dozens, Israel pounded Gaza on Sunday.
More than 300 people, including 20 children, were killed overnight as a result of Israeli air raids on apartment complexes, tunnels, a mosque, and the homes of Hamas officials in Gaza.
Pakistan is extremely troubled by the rising violence and loss of life in the Middle East. The violence and persecution by Israeli occupation troops must stop immediately,” Jilani tweeted on his X account, showing sympathy with the Palestinian people.
As viewed from Ashkelon in southern Israel on October 8, 2023, Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system successfully deflects rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. REUTERS PHOTO
As viewed from Ashkelon in southern Israel on October 8, 2023, Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system successfully deflects rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. REUTERS PHOTO
As part of his demand for a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestine problem, President Dr. Arif Alvi cited the relevant UN resolutions and international law.
The president wrote on X that peace would never come unless Israel’s infringement on Palestinian rights and treatment of its people were criticised.
Repeated land grabs, squatter communities, excessive force, and senseless deaths. This has led to the destruction of any chance of achieving lasting peace.
He claimed that it was now time to act in accordance with UN resolutions. A lot of progress towards world peace can be made today with the help of the international community.
The Foreign Office (FO) issued a request for maximum restraint a day earlier, pleading with the international community to end fighting, safeguard civilians, and work towards a sustainable peace in the region.
The FO spokeswoman stated in a statement, “We are closely monitoring the unfolding situation in the Middle East and the outbreak of hostilities between the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
Mumtaz Zahra Baloch voiced concern over the “human cost of escalating situation” in the region, noting that Pakistan has maintained a consistent stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict by supporting a two-state solution as the best hope for long-term peace.
