Thousands have died and the toll continues to climb dramatically five days after Palestinian militants launched a surprise attack on Israel.
Israel said it had recaptured border areas along Gaza that had been taken by Hamas militants in Saturday’s assault, and has massed its military forces around the besieged Palestinian enclave in what appears to be preparation for a possible ground invasion.
Israel said Hamas took around 150 hostages. They include at least 11 Thais, two Mexicans and an unknown number of Americans and Germans.Israel declared war on Hamas on Sunday and has since carried out thousands of air strikes inside the densely populated territory of 2.3 million people. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that his country’s military campaign was only the start of a sustained war, and has vowed to reduce to “rubble” Hamas’s hideouts in Gaza.
But late Tuesday in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, troops backed by helicopters and drones exchanged fire with several militants, leaving three fighters dead, the army said. In the kibbutz of Beeri alone, Hamas gunmen killed more than 100 people, a volunteer who helped recover the bodies told AFP.
Unrest has also broken out in the occupied West Bank, where 15 Palestinians have died since Saturday.Hamas said it fired 5 000 rockets in an offensive it branded “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”.
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