Israel imposes total siege on Gaza as army prepares further strikes

Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip Monday and cut off the water supply as it kept bombing targets in the crowded Palestinian enclave in response to the Hamas surprise assault on Saturday.

Reeling from the Palestinian group's unprecedented ground, air and sea attacks, Israel has counted over 700 dead and launched a withering barrage of strikes on Gaza that have raised the death toll there to 560 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened that "what Hamas will experience will be difficult and terrible ... We are going to change the Middle East."

"This is only the beginning," he vowed. "We will defeat them with force, enormous force."

The skies over Gaza were blackened by plumes of smoke from deafening explosions as Hamas kept launching rockets as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where missile defence systems fired and air raid sirens blared.

.@MajedAbusalama writes his personal reflections on the last 48 hours following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, reminding us that it is Israel’s colonial crimes that must be stressed amidst increasing racist Western framing of Palestinians as 'terrorists' https://t.co/I4CTgTLmZx

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) October 9, 2023

Hamas, whose militants surged into Israeli settlements on Saturday, claimed on Monday that Israeli air strikes had killed four of the captives.

Israel said it had called up 300,000 army reservists for its "Swords of Iron" campaign, and truck convoys were moving tanks to the south, where its forces had dislodged the last holdout Hamas fighters from embattled towns.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would impose a "complete siege" on the long blockaded enclave and stressed what this meant for its 2.3 million people: "No electricity, no food, no water, no gas - it's all closed."

Palestinians in the impoverished coastal territory braced for what many feared will be a massive Israeli ground attack aiming to defeat Hamas and liberate the hostages.

Netanyahu has warned Gaza civilians to flee from Hamas sites, which he vowed to turn "to rubble". Gaza is one of the world's most densely-populated areas, with few places for the blockaded enclave's residents to flee.

Lebanon border clash

Middle East tensions have spiked as Israel's arch enemy Iran and their Lebanese ally Hezbollah have praised the Hamas attack, although Tehran rejected any role in the military operation.

Hamas has called on "resistance fighters" in the occupied West Bank and in Arab and Islamic nations to join its "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood", launched half a century after the 1973 Arab-Israel war.

"The military operation is still continuing," Hossam Badran, a Hamas official, told AFP from Doha, adding that "there is currently no chance for negotiation on the issue of prisoners or anything else".

The United States has pledged "rock solid" support for Israel and said it would send munitions and military hardware to its key ally and divert an aircraft carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean.

Will Hezbollah join Hamas in its fight against Israel?

Analysts suggest the answer depends on what Israel does next.https://t.co/xsOegwZWov

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) October 8, 2023

Israel, which has long prided itself on a high-tech military and intelligence edge in its many conflicts, has been shaken to the core by Hamas's unprecedented attack.

It now faces the threat of a multi-front war after Hezbollah launched guided missiles and artillery shells from the north on Sunday "in solidarity" with Hamas, in what some observers considered a warning shot.

On Monday, the Israeli army said its soldiers had "killed a number of armed suspects" who had crossed the border from Lebanon and that Israeli helicopters were striking targets in the area.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad later claimed responsibility for the thwarted infiltration from Lebanon to Israel.

Hezbollah also said one of its members had died.

Israel has expressed alarm and revulsion at the Hamas attack across the Gaza border fence - long deemed impregnable and guarded by surveillance cameras, drones, patrols and watchtowers - and the bloody violence they unleashed.

Among the hostages they took back into Gaza were children and a Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair, Israeli officials have said.

Up to 250 bodies were strewn across the site of a music festival in a Negev desert kibbutz, mostly young people, and charred car wrecks were piled up in a sign of the panicked rush to escape, while other revellers were feared to be among the hostages.

"Never before have so many Israelis been killed by one single thing, let alone enemy activity in one day," said army spokesman Jonathan Conricus.

The multi-pronged attack had brought "by far the worst day in Israeli history", he said, likening it to a combination of the "9/11 and Pearl Harbour" attacks.

The situation was also dire inside Gaza, which has been blockaded by Israel since Hamas assumed control there 15 years ago, a period that has seen four wars with Israel before the latest escalation.

Air strikes have wrought widespread destruction in Gaza's refugee camp of Jabalia, where charred bodies were pulled from the rubble and relatives wailed in grief.

Earlier strikes have levelled residential tower blocks, a large mosque and the territory's major bank building.

More than 120,000 people in Gaza have been displaced amid the carnage, said the United Nations.

"The situation is unbearable," said Amal al-Sarsawi, 37, as she took shelter in a school classroom with her terrified children.

Minors in war zone have felt their sense of safety "ripped away" said Jason Lee of charity group Save the Children. "Our teams and their families are terrified, they feel like sitting targets. Children across the region are in constant fear."

Global shock waves

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have rallied in support and clashed with Israeli security forces, leaving 15 Palestinians dead since Saturday.

Anti-Israel activists have demonstrated in many countries while security was stepped up around Jewish temples and school worldwide.

The spiralling conflict has sent shock waves around the world amid fears of a wider escalation, sparking a surge in oil prices on fears of tightening supplies.

Western capitals have condemned the attack by Hamas, which the United States and European Union consider a terrorist group.

A rare occasion in media history where a Palestinian has been able to speak freely on live TV without being interrupted. Mustafa Barghouti, gen. sec. of the Palestinian National Initiative, gave evidence-based replies on Palestine during a live CNN interview that has gone viral: pic.twitter.com/nkWeyhPlBX

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) October 9, 2023

The EU has halted development aid payments to the Palestinians and said it was placing 691 million euros of support "under review".

Foreign or dual nationals have been reported killed, abducted or missing by countries including Brazil, Britain, Cambodia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Nepal, Panama, Paraguay, Thailand, Ukraine and the United States.

Israel issued a travel warning for its citizens, especially in the Middle East, after an Egyptian police officer shot dead two Israeli tourists Sunday.

The Arab League said its foreign ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday to discuss "Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip".