New Delhi/Jerusalem: Israel continued to pound the beleaguered Gaza Strip on Tuesday with the fiercest air strikes in its 75-year conflict with the Palestinians, razing whole districts to dust despite a threat from Hamas militants to execute a captive for each home hit.
The air strikes continued as the death toll from Hamas' surprise attack over the weekend rose above 1,000. Brig Gen Dan Goldfus, an Israeli military official announced the figure during a briefing with reporters on Tuesday. Israel's fierce offensive of airstrikes in Gaza has claimed at least 830 lives so far and reduced most parts of the strip to rubble.
"We are going to go on the offence and attack the Hamas terrorist group and any other group that is in Gaza, he said. We will have to change the reality from within Gaza to prevent this from happening again," he said.
Gaza is a 40-kilometre long strip of land wedged among Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea that is home to 2.3 million people and has been governed by Hamas since 2007. Israeli warplanes hammered the strip, reducing buildings to rubble and sending people scrambling to find safety in the tiny, sealed-off territory as Israel vowed retaliation for Hamas' surprise weekend attack that would “reverberate ... for generations.”
After hours of nonstop attacks, residents left their homes at daybreak to find buildings torn in half by airstrikes or reduced to mounds of concrete and rebar. Cars were flattened and trees burned out on residential streets that had been transformed into moonscapes. The devastation signaled what appeared to be a new Israeli tactic: warning civilians to leave certain areas and then hitting those areas with unprecedented intensity. On Tuesday afternoon, the military warned residents of another nearby neighborhood to evacuate and move into the center of Gaza City.
“There is no safe place in Gaza right now, you see decent people being killed every day,” Hasan Jabar, a Gaza journalist, said after three other Palestinian journalists were killed in the Rimal bombardment. “I am genuinely afraid for my life.”
The war began after Hamas militants stormed into Israel on Saturday, bringing gunbattles to its streets for the first time in decades. At least 1,600 lives have already been claimed on both sides, and perhaps hundreds more. Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza hold more than 150 soldiers and civilians hostage, according to Israel.
The conflict is only expected to escalate. Israel expanded the mobilization of reservists to 360,000 on Tuesday, according to the country’s media. After days of fighting, Israel’s military said Tuesday morning that it had regained effective control over areas Hamas attacked in its south, and of the Gaza border.
8 French citizens among those killed in Israel
The number of French people killed in Israel has risen to eight — with 20 unaccounted for — the French Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Several of those are believed held hostage. The ministry previously confirmed the deaths of four other French citizens killed in the Hamas militant attacks in Israel. At the time, the ministry said another 13 French citizens were missing and that some of them have “very likely” been kidnapped, including a 12-year-old boy.
Carrier strike group arrives in eastern Mediterranean, US official says
The Ford carrier strike group has arrived in the far Eastern Mediterranean, within range to provide a host of air support or long-range strike options for Israel if requested, but also to surge U.S. military presence to prevent the now four-day-old war with Hamas from spilling over into a more dangerous regional conflict, a U.S. official told the Associated Press.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the arrival ahead of an official announcement. The Pentagon has said that the U.S. warplanes, destroyers and cruisers that sailed with the Ford will conduct maritime and air operations which could range from intelligence collection and interdictions to long range strike. Along with the Ford, the U.S. is sending the cruiser USS Normandy and destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney, and USS Roosevelt, and augmenting regional Air Force F-35, F-15, F-16, and A-10 fighter aircraft squadrons in the region.
Erdogan: US deployment to region could lead to massacres
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized Israel’s blockade of Gaza saying cutting off electricity and water is against the Palestinians’ human rights. Speaking at a joint news conference with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Tuesday, Erdogan criticized U.S. plans to send an aircraft carrier to the region, saying the deployment could lead to “massacres.”
“What is the U.S. aircraft carrier doing in Israel? What is it coming to do? It will take down Gaza by striking the surrounding areas and start committing serious massacres,” he said. The Turkish leader reiterated his offer to mediate between the sides and said he would continue his efforts to end the war. He said he also would hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres later on Tuesday.
Putin blames failed US foreign policy
As the Israel-Palestine war enters Day 4 with the death toll in both nations crossing 1600, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday described the war as a result of failed U.S. foreign policy.
Speaking at the start of his talks with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani, Putin said in his first comment on the war that “many will agree with me that this is a vivid example of the failure of the U.S. policies in the Middle East.” He added that the U.S. has “tried to monopolize the settlement, but, regrettably hasn’t bothered to search for compromises that would be acceptable to both parties and, just the opposite, sought to enforce their own view of how it should be done, exerting pressure on both parties.”
Putin said the U.S. has failed “to take vital interests of the Palestinian people into account,” ignoring U.N. General Assembly resolutions envisaging the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Modi speaks to Netanyahu
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday as the latter briefed him about the ongoing attack on Hamas militants. PM Modi, who shares good relations with Netanyahu, spoke for the first time after the conflict broke out on October 7. During his conversation, PM Modi condemned the 'terror' activities by Hamas and extended support.
"I thank Prime Minister @netanyahu for his phone call and providing an update on the ongoing situation. People of India stand firmly with Israel in this difficult hour. India strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," wrote PM Modi on X.
While Modi shares and makes sure he expresses his camaraderie with Israel's PM, it is pertinent to mention that India’s support for the Palestinian cause is an integral part of the nation’s foreign policy.
In 1974, India became the first non-Arab state to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. In 1988, India became one of the first countries to recognize the Palestinian State. In 1996, India opened its Representative Office in Gaza, which was later shifted to Ramallah in 2003. India has played an active role in extending support for the Palestinian cause across various multilateral fora.
Russia to talk to Israel and Palestine in hopes of reaching a settlement
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Moscow has been talking to both Israel and the Palestinians to help search for a settlement. Asked about a claim by the Palestinian ambassador to Moscow that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will visit Moscow soon, Peskov said that the visit had been planned before the war. He added that Moscow will announce the date after it’s finally determined.
Peskov rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s claim that Moscow was interested in fueling the war as “totally baseless.”
Doctors Without Borders concerned about dwindling supplies in Gaza
The head of Doctors Without Borders for the Palestinian territories said he is concerned their team in Gaza will soon run out of medical supplies now that the enclave's borders have closed. Leo Cans told The Associated Press that he is particularly concerned about the supply of surgical equipment, bandages, antibiotics and fuel. The group, otherwise known as MSF, are currently operating from Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
“We are just running on the stock we have,” Cans said. The group had previously brought in all its supplies through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing. In Gaza, MSF has 300 local staff and 23 international workers, he said.
Germany investigating kidnapping of its citizens in Israel
German prosecutors are investigating after German citizens were apparently kidnapped in the attack by Hamas on Israel. The federal prosecutor’s office said in an emailed statement that the investigation of unknown members of Hamas on suspicion of hostage-taking, murder and membership in a foreign terrorist organization was opened on Tuesday.
The German Foreign Ministry has said it has to assume that an unspecified number of German-Israeli dual citizens were among those kidnapped by Hamas on Saturday. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Tuesday that Germany is working closely with Israel to determine how many citizens were kidnapped and how they might be freed.
Israel continues to pound Gaza, Netanyahu says attack 'will reverberate with them for generations'.
Israel pounded downtown Gaza City with relentless bombardments Tuesday and further expanded a massive mobilization of reservists as it vowed a retaliation that would “reverberate ... for generations” against the Hamas militant group for its surprise weekend attack. The war — which began after Hamas militants stormed into Israel on Saturday, bringing gunbattles to its streets for the first time in decades — has already claimed at least 1,800 lives.
The Israeli military said more than 1,000 people already have been killed in Israel. In Gaza and the West Bank, 830 people have been killed, according to authorities there; Israel says hundreds of Hamas fighters are among them. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.
It is only expected to escalate from here, with questions over whether Israel will launch a ground invasion and Hamas threatening to kill captured Israelis if strikes targeted civilians without warning. Israel said that Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza are also holding more than 150 soldiers and civilians hostage.
Israel’s military said Tuesday morning that it had regained effective control over its south and the border, breached over the weekend in an attack that caught its vaunted military and intelligence apparatus completely off guard. The bodies of roughly 1,500 Hamas militants, meanwhile, were found on Israeli territory, the military said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether those numbers overlapped with deaths previously reported by Palestinian authorities.
“We have only started striking Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a nationally televised address late Monday. “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.” The devastation in Rimal signalled what could be a new Israeli tactic: warning civilians to leave certain areas and then hitting those areas with airstrikes of unprecedented intensity. If these types of bombardments continue, Gaza's civilians will have fewer and fewer places to shelter as more neighbourhoods become uninhabitable.
Iran rejects allegation it played a role in Hamas attacks
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected allegations Tuesday about his country’s role in Hamas attacks against Israel, but said Iran will continue supporting Palestinians, media reported. It was the first reaction to the war by Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters in the country. However, Khamenei said, “We defend Palestine, we defend the fights.” He praised Palestinian “capable, smart and courageous” young Palestinians. He said the disaster for Israel came because mistakes by Israel against Palestinians.
Aid agencies talk to Egypt about humanitarian corridors
The United Nations and other aid agencies were talking with Egypt to send humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza through the Rafah crossing point between the strip and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, an Egyptian official and aid worker said Tuesday. They said Egyptian authorities have contacted Israel and the United States to secure humanitarian corridors in Gaza amid Israel’s unrelenting bombardment of the strip.
Both the official and the aid worker spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists. The efforts came as Israel sealed it off from food, fuel and other supplies to over 2 million people in Gaza in retaliation for a bloody incursion by Hamas militants.
'Operation Al-Aqsa Storm' was planned in secret, says Hamas leader
Only a few of Hamas' top commanders knew about the plan to attack Israel on Saturday, claimed senior militant group leader Ali Barakeh in an interview with the Associated Press on Monday. "Only a handful of Hamas commanders knew about the zero hour," said Barakeh, a member of Hamas’ exiled leadership. He said it was planned by around a half dozen top Hamas commanders in Gaza and that even the group’s closest allies were not informed in advance about the timing. He also rejected allegations that Iran was involved in the attack, but warned that Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah "will join the battle if Gaza is subjected to a war of annihilation."
187,000 of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have left their homes
The heavy bombardments and Israel’s threats to topple the group sharpened questions about Hamas’ strategy and objectives. Hamas leaders have not spoken publicly about whether they anticipated Israel’s ferocious retaliation — and the potential risk of losing much of the group’s government infrastructure — when they launched the weekend attack. In a briefing Tuesday, army spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht suggested Palestinians should try to leave through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
The U.N. said Tuesday that more than 187,000 of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have left their homes — the most since a 2014 air and ground offensive by Israel uprooted about 400,000. UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, is sheltering more than 137,000 people in schools across the territory. Families have taken in some 41,000 others. Asked if Israel considered Hamas' civil government, such as parliament and ministries, legitimate targets, Hecht said “if there’s a gunman firing rockets from there, it turns into a military target.”
Over 6000 housing units damaged in Israeli airstrikes
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have razed 790 housing units and severely damaged 5,330, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said early Tuesday. Damage to three water and sanitation sites have cut off services to 400,000. The Israeli siege will leave Gaza almost entirely dependent on its crossing into neighboring Egypt at Rafah, where cargo capacities are lower than other crossings into Israel.
An Egyptian military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press, said more than 2 tons of medical supplies from the Egyptian Red Crescent were sent to Gaza and efforts were underway to organize food and other deliveries. Hamas has ruled Gaza since driving out forces loyal to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority in 2007, and its rule has gone unchallenged through the blockade and four previous wars with Israel.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Palestinians entered a fourth day under severe movement restrictions. Israeli authorities have sealed off crossings to the occupied territory and closed checkpoints, blocking movement between cities and towns. Clashes between rock-throwing Palestinians and Israeli forces in the territory since the start of the incursion have left 15 Palestinians dead, according to the U.N. (With AP inputs)
