JERUSALEM/GAZA (Reuters) – The Israeli army announced on Monday the mobilization of 300,000 reservists, an unprecedented figure, and the establishment of a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, a sign that it could prepare a ground assault in response to the devastating attack perpetrated this weekend by Hamas fighters.
After hours of intense bombardment by Israeli aircraft, Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip, declared that it would execute an Israeli civilian hostage for each attack on civilian housing without warning.
Inside Israel, Palestinian fighters were still holed up in several places on Monday, two days after killing hundreds of Israelis and taking dozens of hostages during a raid that shook the country’s reputation for invincibility of Israel.
Israeli television channels reported that the death toll from the Hamas attack stood at 900. Gaza’s health ministry said at least 687 Palestinians were killed and 3,726 injured in Israeli airstrikes on the besieged enclave.
Echoing Hamas, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, which said it held more than 30 Israeli captives, called on Israel to refrain from hitting civilians if they cared about the fate of the Israelis it holds.
In Gaza, Israel continued its most intense retaliatory strikes ever. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a strengthening of the blockade, which would prevent even food and fuel from reaching the Gaza Strip, where 2.3 million people live.
As night fell, Israeli airstrikes became more violent, and witnesses said several Hamas security headquarters and ministries were hit. The strikes destroyed roads and houses.
Israel also bombed the headquarters of the private Palestinian telecommunications company, which could impact landline, internet and mobile phone services.
In another sign of Israel’s rapid transition to a state of war, a cabinet member from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party said he could set up a national unity government joined by leaders of the opposition in the coming hours.
SPREAD OF FIGHTS
The prospect of fighting spreading to other areas has alarmed the region. Israeli troops “killed a number of armed suspects who had infiltrated into Israeli territory from Lebanese territory,” the army said, adding that helicopters are “currently striking in the area.”
Hezbollah said four of its members were killed by Israeli fire on southern Lebanon on Monday. An official with Iran-backed Hezbollah had previously denied that the group had mounted any operations in Israel.
Artillery fire and gunshots were heard on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, a correspondent for Al Manar television channel, Hezbollah’s propaganda instrument, said in a message posted on social media. Israeli Army Radio said the location was near Adamit, opposite the Lebanese border towns of Aalma El Chaeb and Zahajra.
The Al Quods Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for an attack on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
In southern Israel, the scene of the deadly Hamas attack, Israel’s top military spokesman said troops had regained control of communities inside Israel that had been invaded, but that clashes isolated attacks continued as some armed men remained active.
The images of the bodies of hundreds of Israeli civilians sprawled in city streets, shot dead at an outdoor dance party and taken from their homes, are unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The announcement of the mobilization of 300,000 reservists in the space of just two days has reinforced speculation that Israel could consider a ground attack on Gaza, a territory it evacuated almost two decades ago.
“We have never mobilized so many reservists on such a scale,” said the army’s chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. “We are going on the offensive.”
Palestinians said they received calls and audio messages on their cellphones from Israeli security agents asking them to leave areas located mainly in the northern and eastern territories of Gaza, and warning them that the army would carry out operations there.
Hamas, which calls for the destruction of Israel, says its attack was justified by the critical situation in the Gaza Strip, which has been under blockade for 16 years, and by the deadliest Israeli crackdown in years in the occupied West Bank. .
A TOTAL MASSACRE
Major Palestinian groups that deplored the attacks said the violence was nonetheless predictable, as the peace process has been frozen for nearly a decade and far-right Israeli leaders talk of annexing Palestinian land once for all.
The attackers shot dead dozens of young Israelis at a party in the desert – media reported 260 dead. A day later, dozens of survivors still came out of hiding. The site was littered with wrecks and abandoned cars.
“It was a real massacre,” said Arik Nani, who was celebrating his 26th birthday and escaped by hiding for hours in a field.
In Gaza, images obtained by Reuters showed dozens of people climbing collapsed buildings in search of survivors, with the air still dusty from the impact. Sirens blare as rescue teams put out cars that have caught fire.
“The military targeting and bombing by the Zionist enemy of houses inhabited by women and children, mosques and schools in Gaza amounts to war crimes and terrorism,” said Izzat Reshiq, a Hamas official, in a statement.
Egypt, which mediated between Israel and Hamas in previous conflicts, was in close contact with both sides, according to Egyptian security sources. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan also said his country was ready to play a mediating role.
Qatari mediators held talks with Hamas officials to try to negotiate the release of Israeli women and children captured by the militant group and detained in Gaza, in exchange for the release of 36 Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons, a source told Reuters.
The violence jeopardizes the US-backed normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a security realignment that could have threatened Palestinian hopes for self-determination and put Iran out of the game.
“The price that the Gaza Strip will pay will be very heavy and will change the reality for generations,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in Ofakim, one of the towns attacked.
The Israeli army faces many questions in the face of the worst failure of the country’s intelligence services in 50 years. Benjamin Netanyahu’s options may also be limited by concerns over the fate of Israeli hostages.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Ammar Anwar in Sderot; with contributions from Henriette Chacar, Emily Rose and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Steven Scheer in Modiin, and the office of Washington; written by Michael Georgy; Blandine Hénault and Kate Entringer for the French version)
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