Israel has threatened to launch a ground offensive in response to an attack by Hamas, and US Vice President Joe Biden has issued a warning to anyone who would try to take advantage of the situation in Gaza.
According to Israeli claims, Hamas launched its unprecedented round of attacks from a neighbourhood in Gaza City late on Wednesday, thus scores of Israeli fighter jets pounded more than 200 sites there.
At least 1,055 people have been killed and 5,184 injured, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The Israeli military said that 1,200 Israelis had been killed and another 2,700 had been injured.
“We have sustained extremely heavy casualties,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, the military’s spokesman, in a video briefing posted on X (previously Twitter).
Hostage Israeli soldiers and civilians were threatened by Hamas fighters on Monday to be executed for every home in Gaza that was bombed without warning, but as of Tuesday night, there was no evidence that this had really happened.
Near the Gaza line, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops, “Hamas sought a change and it will get one. In Gaza, the status quo will soon disappear.
We launched the offensive from the sky and will soon be launching ground assaults as well. Since Day 2, we’ve been in the attack and have total control of the area. Nothing except escalation from here on out.
The Israeli publication Israel Hayom reported that at least a thousand infiltrating fighters from Gaza had been slain.
After 38 years of occupation, Israel pulled its troops out of Gaza in 2005, and ever since Hamas took power in the territory in 2007, it has remained under a strict embargo. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that Israel’s “complete siege” of the blockaded Gaza Strip will make an already catastrophic humanitarian situation much worse by cutting off food, water, fuel, and electricity.
Three security sources reported that Israeli forces responded to a salvo of rockets fired from southern Lebanon at Israel’s northern border with bombardment.
Fears of a bigger battle were exacerbated as several shells fired from Syrian territory landed in open areas of Israel.
“We do not yet know if these rockets were fired by the Syrian armed forces, by any of the many Iranian militias that exist and are welcomed by the Syrian regime, or Hezbollah or any other action,” stated Lieutenant Colonel Conricus from Israel.
“What we do know is that we retaliated fire towards the sources of fire, and currently the situation there is quiet.”
Israeli towns close to the Gaza border were alerted to rocket fire all night long by blaring sirens.
260 thousand Palestinians uprooted
The United Nations estimates that over 260,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli air, ground, and sea attacks.
In an update released on Tuesday, the UN humanitarian organisation OCHA reported that “over 263,934 people in Gaza are believed to have fled their homes,” adding that “this number is expected to rise further.”
It stated that “due to previous escalations,” approximately 3,000 people had to relocate. OCHA reported, citing Palestinian sources, that more than 1,000 homes had been demolished or badly damaged by Israeli airstrikes.
Nearly 175,500 displaced persons took safety in 88 schools operated by UNRWA, the UN agency aiding Palestinian refugees.
An additional 14,500 had taken refuge in 12 government schools, and it was estimated that another 74,000 were sleeping with friends and family or in churches and other buildings.
“represents the highest number of people displaced since the 50-day escalation of hostilities in 2014,” it stated of the number of Gazans who had to leave their homes because of the fighting.
“Meeting basic needs is becoming increasingly challenging for those who have not been displaced,” said OCHA.
Nothing is secure.
Israeli airstrikes reportedly struck residential areas in Gaza City, Khan Younis, and the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Palestinian media.
The father of Mohammed Deif, the chief of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, lived in one of the homes hit, according to sources. According to the news, Deif’s brother and other relatives were murdered.
Social media posts from frantic locals described a situation in which dozens of buildings had fallen, sometimes trapping as many as 50 people inside with no way for rescuers to get to them.
Names were scribbled on the stomachs of the deceased as they lay on the floor of the mortuary at the Khan Younis hospital in Gaza City. There was no more room for the dead, so doctors frantically asked for family members to come swiftly and collect their loved ones.
A city building that was being used as an evacuation centre was struck. The survivors reported a high body count.
After fleeing the border town of Abassan Al-Kabira with his family, Ala Abu Tair, 35, took refuge in Gaza. “No place is safe in Gaza, as you see they hit everywhere,” he remarked.
A Hamas spokesman has confirmed that two members of the group’s political office were killed in an air attack in Khan Younis. Their names were Jawad Abu Shammala and Zakaria Abu Maamar.
Since Saturday, Israeli bombings have reportedly destroyed over 22,600 Palestinian homes, along with 10 hospitals and 48 educational institutions, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In a letter to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour said, as reported by Reuters: “Such blatant dehumanisation 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.”
Israeli police claimed they killed two Palestinians who had fired fireworks at officers on Tuesday night in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where violence had also broken out.
Since Saturday, the Palestinian health ministry reports that 21 Palestinians have been killed and 130 injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.
Reactions Around the World
At the White House, Vice President Joe Biden condemned the Hamas strikes as “an act of sheer evil” and promised that the United States will expeditiously send additional military equipment to Israel. This aid would include ammunition and interceptors to resupply the Iron Dome aerial defence system. He urged Israel to respond in accordance with the “law of war.”
He told the press that the United States had “enhanced our military force posture in the region to strengthen our deterrence,” including the deployment of a carrier strike group and fighter planes.
“Let me say again to any country, any organisation, anyone thinking of taking advantage of the situation, I have one word: don’t,” warned Biden, presumably referring to Iran and its proxies in the region.
Although US officials insist they have no proof Iran was behind the assaults, they do point to Iran’s consistent backing of Hamas.
In a recorded address obtained by Reuters, former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called for rallies around the Arab world on Friday in solidarity of the Palestinians.
Meshaal, the current head of Hamas’s diaspora office, said, “[We must] head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world on Friday, the Friday of Al Aqsa Flood.”
Biden has sent his senior diplomat, Antony Blinken, to Israel to send “a message of solidarity and support,” according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
A safe exit for civilians from Gaza is an issue being discussed by the United States, Israel, and Egypt, according to US national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Right-wing coalition members and opposition leaders in Israel came very close to forging an emergency unity government led by Netanyahu.
Many people were left stranded as major airlines cancelled flights, prompting frantic efforts to rescue them from countries like Fiji, South Korea, Denmark, the Czech Republic, and Canada.
