JERUSALEM, ISRAEL: Israeli warplanes hit the Gaza Strip with repeated airstrikes Monday, while the military said it mobilized an unprecedented number of reservists ahead of “going on the offensive” in response to a surprise attack Saturday by Hamas militants.
Israeli chief military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters that Israel had reestablished control of areas near Gaza that Hamas militants stormed in the incursion that began Saturday.
There were some areas of fighting early Monday, Hagari said, and that while the areas were under Israeli control there were ongoing searches for Palestinian militants.
The death toll stood at 700 people in Israel and nearly 500 in Gaza around midday Monday. Thousands of people on both sides have been injured. The U.S. State Department said that nine Americans were among those killed and that other U.S. citizens were unaccounted for.
The dead in Israel also included people from Britain, France, Nepal, Thailand and Ukraine, officials from those nations said.
The United Nations said more than 123,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been internally displaced.
In addition to carrying out hundreds of airstrikes on Gaza, the Israeli military said it mobilized 300,000 reservists as part of its response.
“Our job is to make sure that at the end of this war, Hamas will no longer have any military capabilities to threaten Israeli civilians with,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “In addition to that, we are also to make sure that Hamas will not be able to govern the Gaza Strip.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a video statement that Israel would implement a “complete siege” on Gaza, cutting off access to electricity, food, water and gas.
Gaza has faced various levels of blockades from Israel and Egypt since Hamas seized power there from a rival Palestinian party in 2007.
The leader of the military wing of Hamas cited the Gaza blockade as well as raids in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and tensions around a holy site in Jerusalem among the factors that sparked the Hamas attack.
U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders condemned the Hamas attack, with Biden promising Israel further military assistance to defend itself.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was convening an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers Tuesday to discuss the situation. The U.N. Security Council held closed-door talks on Sunday.
Poland and Hungary were among the countries that carried out evacuation flights from Israel on Monday.
Austria said it would freeze development aid for Palestinian areas in response to the Hamas attack.
Israel formally declared war against Hamas on Sunday.
“This war will take time. It will be difficult,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged the United States “will continue to work to ensure Israel has what it needs to protect its citizens and to secure the release of hostages.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed his support in a phone call Sunday with Gallant. The Pentagon is sending equipment and munitions to aid Israel and has directed a Navy aircraft carrier to move to the eastern Mediterranean.
Hamas and Israel have fought four wars since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.
Vivian Nomalanga Bhebhe, a Zimbabwean household laborer working and living in Tel Aviv since 2017, told VOA that people were being told to stay inside as Israeli troops worked to locate militants.
Bhebhe said with Israeli operations in Gaza expected, as well as resulting Hamas retaliation, “it’s going be a difficult week for all of us here because we don’t know what we expect.”
During past conflicts between Israel and Palestinian militants, Egypt has often played a key role in mediating an end to the fighting.
Other countries have influence in the region as well, but Chang Teng-chi, chairperson of Political Science Department at Taiwan University, specializing in Chinese diplomacy, told VOA that while China has strong relations with Israel, its lack of connection with the other side of the conflict means it “may be difficult for China to play a mediating role.”
“China’s main dealings are limited to the Palestinian Authority, and it has no deep relationship with Hamas,” Chang said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army exchanged gunfire Sunday with Hezbollah militants on the Lebanese border, in northern Israel, opening the possibility of a broader conflict, although Blinken said fighting there had quieted.
Lebanon and Israel are considered enemy states, but a 2006 truce between them has held, for the most part with occasional small rocket attacks from Lebanon which Israel has addressed with retaliatory attacks.
VOA
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