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Under heavy bombing, Palestinians in Gaza move from place to place, only to discover nowhere is safe
Over 180,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are packed into United Nations shelters as Israeli warplanes pound the tiny territory of 2.3 million people after their Hamas militant rulers launched an unprecedented weekend attack on Israel.
Among them is 27-year-old Sabreen al-Attar. She sprang into action when she heard rocket after rocket whoosh over her farmland in Beit Lahiya just south of the Israeli border on Saturday. She knew from experience that Israeli retaliation would be swift and severe.
Grabbing her children, al-Attar rushed to one of the dozens of shelters set up in schools run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City. There, blasts of unprecedented intensity punctuated hours of steadily declining conditions Monday as food and water ran out.
“When I escape, I do it for my children,” she said, her hands trembling. “Their lives rest on my shoulders.”
But residents say there is no real escape in Gaza, which has been under a suffocating 16-year blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt. When war breaks out, as it has four times since the Hamas militant group seized power in 2007, even United Nations facilities that are supposed to be safe zones risk becoming engulfed in the fighting. The U.N. said that an airstrike directly hit one of its shelters Sunday and damaged five other schools-turned-shelters on Monday. There was no immediate word of casualties.
In the downtown Rimal area, Gaza City’s bustling commercial district with high-rises home to international media and aid organizations, al-Attar hoped she would be safe. Rimal had until then not been an immediate Israeli target, unlike border towns or densely populated refugee camps.
But as the Israeli military went neighborhood to neighborhood with rapid and intensifying airstrikes, the heavy bombardments reached the heart of Gaza City, transforming the affluent neighborhood into an uninhabitable desert of craters. Rimal was also hit by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza’s bloody 2021 war, but not to this extent.
Israeli bombs that struck Gaza's flagship Islamic University, government ministries and high-rises in Rimal, starting Monday afternoon, also blew out the windows of al-Attar’s shelter, shattering glass everywhere, she said. Life there, crammed with 1,500 other families, was full of danger and deprivation but Al-Attar said she had no choice but to stay, telling her boys — 2-year-old Mohammed and 7-year-old Nabil — to keep away from the windows.
Read: Everything you need to know about Hamas
“The night was very, very difficult,” she said Tuesday. “We have nowhere else to go.”
The bombing in Rimal and the potential risks of sheltering in U.N. schools highlighted the desperate search by Gaza civilians for refuge, with the territory's safe spaces rapidly shrinking. Ahead of the Israeli military's warning to civilians on Monday that Rimal would be hit, families staggered into the streets with whatever belongings they could carry and without a destination.
In a briefing Tuesday, Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht suggested Palestinians should try to leave through the Gaza border crossing with Egypt — a seemingly impractical suggestion.
While Hamas officials operating the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing said Tuesday that Gazans who had registered in advance could cross into Egypt, the number of those allowed to travel has typically been small. That has led to backlogs and waiting times of days or weeks, even in calm times.
“There is never a Plan B here,” said 31-year-old Maha Hussaini, as she watched terrified Rimal residents flood her Gaza City neighborhood further south just as bombs began to fall there, too.
So far, the Gaza toll stands at about 700 dead and thousands wounded, according to Gaza health officials, a punishing response to the militant group’s attack that has killed over 900 Israelis. More than 150 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been taken captive.
Read: Israel-Hamas war: Trust in Israeli army shattered
Israel says it takes pains to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas sites in Gaza. But the military long has carried out airstrikes in crowded residential neighborhoods, inevitably harming civilians and civilian infrastructure. Hamas authorities on Monday reported the destruction of seven mosques and 15 civilian homes that killed many members of the same family.
The Israeli defense minister also has ordered a “complete siege” on the already blockaded Gaza Strip, vowing to block food, water and fuel from the territory.
“None of us even know what ‘safe’ means in Gaza,” said 28-year-old Hind Khoudary, who was hunkered down in the upscale Roots Hotel as deafening explosions thundered.
“These are not people with (militant) affiliations, these are people from higher classes, foreign organizations and media," she said of those around her. "But on days like this, there is zero difference.”
Residents described a dangerous dance around the heavy Israeli bombing — fleeing home, crashing at relatives’ apartments, fleeing again to U.N. schools and then starting all over again in an attempt to find some sense of safety.
Read more: Israel vows complete siege on Gaza as it strikes Palestinian territory after incursion by Hamas
“It is better than dying,” said 37-year-old Muhammad al-Bishawi, exhausted as he hustled between a U.N. shelter in Gaza City and his home in Beit Lahiya to secure food and other supplies before returning.
On Saturday after the massive Hamas attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Gaza civilians of the horrors to come, promising to unleash the full force of the Israeli military on the strip.
“Get out now,” he said, addressing Palestinians in Gaza. “Because we will operate everywhere.”
Khoudary was listening to him as the airstrikes intensified, trapped in her home with nowhere to run.
“Why didn’t he tell us where to flee?” she asked. “Because we’d really like to know.”
What to know as war between Israel and Hamas rages on for a fourth day
Around 1,500 bodies of Hamas militants have been found in Israeli territory, the Israeli military said Tuesday after announcing it had largely gained control in the south and “restored full control” over the border on the fourth day of fighting following an unprecedented surprise attack.
Spokesperson Richard Hecht said no Hamas fighters have crossed into Israel since Monday night, although infiltrations could still be possible. Israel has previously reported 900 soldiers and civilians killed, and Palestinian authorities have reported about 700 deaths in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Israeli government promised Monday to hunt down Hamas fighters and to punish the Gaza Strip following a surprise weekend attack that killed more than 900 people in Israel, including at least 260 at a crowded music festival that became the scene of one of the country’s worst civilian massacres.
During an unprecedented incursion Saturday, militants blew through a fortified border fence and gunned down civilians and soldiers in Israeli communities along the Gaza frontier during a Jewish holiday. Israel struck back with airstrikes, including one that flattened a 14-story tower that held Hamas offices.
Read: Israel strikes downtown Gaza City and mobilizes 300,000 reservists as war enters fourth day
Here are some key takeaways from the war:
WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE GROUND?
The Israeli military said it had secured the border and had largely gained control in the south after mobilizing 300,000 reservists, raising the question of whether Israel will launch a ground assault into the tiny Mediterranean coastal territory. It would be the first since 2014.
The military said it struck hundreds of Hamas targets overnight into Tuesday in Gaza’s City Rimal neighborhood. Tens of thousands fled their homes as relentless airstrikes leveled buildings, including in Gaza City's residential and commercial district of Rimal and earlier in the southern city of Rafah.
WHAT HAVE BOTH SIDES VOWED TO DO?
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he had ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza and that authorities would cut electricity and block the entry of food and fuel to the Palestinian territory. Military spokesperson Richard Hecht said Tuesday that government and civilian ministries, such as Parliament and the social welfare ministry, could be targeted.
Hamas, meanwhile, pledged to kill one Israeli civilian captive any time Israel targets civilians in the Gaza Strip without warnings. Hamas and other militants in Gaza say they are holding more than 130 soldiers and civilians taken from inside Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a televised announcement Monday that the offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip “has only started.”
“What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations,” Netanyahu said.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE RESPONSE FROM THE U.S. AND OTHER NATIONS?
Asian countries were working to ensure the safety of their citizens who were still in conflict areas Tuesday, with Japan’s top government spokesperson pledged to do the utmost to protect the safety of a small number of Japanese citizens in the conflict area, condemning Hamas and Palestinian militants over their attacks on citizens.
Eighteen Thais are feared dead based on reports from employers, while the numbers of those injured and abducted stand at 9 and 11 in the fourth day of the latest Israel-Hamas war, Thai Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kanchana Patarachoke said Tuesday. The first batch of 15 evacuees is scheduled to board a flight to arrive in Thailand on Thursday. Thai Ambassador to Israel Pannabha Chandraramya said the embassy is in touch with Israeli authorities about Thai nationals who have been abducted, but has not been informed of their conditions or whereabouts.
Hong Kong leader John Lee said Tuesday the government had received requests for assistance from 28 Hong Kongers, and 20 of them already left Israel. Authorities will keep in contact with the remaining eight and make arrangements according to their needs, he added. Lee said in his weekly press briefing that the government issued a red outbound travel alert for Israel, becoming the latest government telling its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to the country.
Read: Israel's Netanyahu says offensive against Hamas will 'reverberate' for generations
The U.S. has already begun delivering critically needed munitions and military equipment to Israel, and the Pentagon is reviewing inventories to see what else can be sent quickly to boost its ally in the 3-day-old war with Hamas, a senior Defense Department official said Monday. The official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive shipments. The weapons movement came as President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. death toll in the war has gone up to 11.
The leaders of numerous Western nations, including Britain and Germany, have condemned the attacks by Hamas, while Arab nations have urged that the fighting on both sides stop.
Arab foreign ministers plan to convene Wednesday in Cairo at the behest of the Palestinians. Arab League Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki said the ministers would discuss Arab efforts to “stop the Israeli aggression” on Gaza.
Supporters of Israel and backers of the Palestinian cause held competing rallies Sunday in several American cities and Monday in London; Athens, Greece; and France.
WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE RIPPLE EFFECTS OF THE WAR?
Major airlines have suspended flights in and out of Israel. Scores of arriving and departing flights at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport were canceled or delayed, according to the airport’s online flight board, which also showed a steady trickle of flights. Most were operated by Israel’s national airline El Al along with others by regional carriers such as Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines and Greece’s Blue Bird Airways.
American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines suspended service as the U.S. State Department issued travel advisories for the region citing potential for terrorism and civil unrest.
WHY DID THE ATTACK TAKE ISRAEL BY SURPRISE?
Israel’s eyes appeared to have been closed in the lead-up to the attack by Hamas, which broke down Israeli border barriers and sent hundreds of militants into Israel.
“This is a major failure,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “This operation actually proves that the (intelligence) abilities in Gaza were no good.”
Amidror declined to offer an explanation for the failure, saying lessons must be learned when the dust settles.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesperson, acknowledged the army owes the public an explanation. But he said now is not the time. “First, we fight. Then we investigate,” he said.
Read: The US will send a carrier strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean in support of Israel
Some say it is too early to pin the blame solely on an intelligence fault. They point to a wave of low-level violence in the West Bank that shifted some military resources there and the political chaos roiling Israel over steps by Netanyahu’s far-right government to overhaul the judiciary. The controversial plan has threatened the cohesion of the country’s powerful military.
WHAT PROMPTED THE ATTACK?
Hamas officials cited long-simmering tensions, including a dispute over the sensitive Al-Aqsa Mosque sacred to both Muslims and Jews. Competing claims over the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, have spilled into violence before, including a bloody 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2021.
In recent years, Israeli religious nationalists — such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister — have increased their visits to the compound. Last week, during the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli activists visited the site, prompting condemnation from Hamas and accusations that Jews were praying there in violation of the status quo agreement.
Hamas also has cited the expansion of Jewish settlements on lands Palestinians claim for a future state and Ben-Gvir’s efforts to toughen restrictions on Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Tensions escalated with recent violent Palestinian protests. In negotiations with Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations, Hamas has pushed for Israeli concessions that could loosen the 17-year blockade on the enclave and help halt a worsening financial crisis.
Israel strikes downtown Gaza City and mobilizes 300,000 reservists as war enters fourth day
Israeli warplanes pounded downtown Gaza City, home to Hamas' centers of government, with relentless bombardments into early Tuesday, after Israel’s prime minister vowed retaliation against the Islamic militant group that would “reverberate for generations.”
The 4-day-old war has already claimed at least 1,600 lives, as Israel saw gun battles in the streets of its own towns for the first time in decades and neighborhoods in Gaza were reduced to rubble. Hamas also escalated the conflict, pledging to kill captured Israelis if strikes targeted civilians without warning.
Israel’s military said it had found the bodies of roughly 1,500 Hamas militants in Israeli territory as it gained effective control in the south and “restored full control” over the border. It was not immediately clear if those numbers overlapped with deaths previously reported by Palestinian authorities.
Israel said that Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza are holding more than 150 soldiers and civilians snatched from inside Israel after the attack caught its vaunted military and intelligence apparatus completely off guard.
Read: Israel-Hamas war: Humanitarian groups scrambling to assist civilians
As the Israeli military activated 300,000 reservists in a massive mobilization, a major question was whether it will launch a ground assault into the tiny Mediterranean coastal territory. The last ground assault was in 2014.
The moves, along with Israel’s formal declaration of war on Sunday, pointed to Israel increasingly shifting to the offensive against Hamas, threatening greater destruction in the densely populated, impoverished Gaza Strip.
“We have only started striking Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a nationally televised address. “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”
The Israeli military said it struck hundreds of Hamas targets in Gaza’s City Rimal densely populated neighborhood, an upscale district of Gaza City that's home to Hamas ministries, as well as universities, media organizations and the offices of aid organizations.
After hours of nonstop strikes overnight, some Rimal residents left their homes at daybreak to find some buildings torn in half by strikes, while others were reduced to mounds of concrete and rebar. Cars were flattened and trees burned out in moonscapes that had been residential streets.
The devastation in Rimal signaled what could be a new Israeli tactic: warning civilians to leave certain areas and then hitting those areas with airstrikes of unprecedented intensity.
The heavy bombardment began in areas of Gaza bordering Israel over the weekend, and overnight shifted to the center of Gaza City. If these types of bombardments continue, Gaza civilians will have fewer and fewer places to shelter as more neighborhoods become uninhabitable.
Read: Israel's Netanyahu says offensive against Hamas will 'reverberate' for generations
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. agencies for Palestinian refugees, is sheltering more than 137,000 people in schools across the territory. Families have taken in some 41,000 others.
In a briefing Tuesday, Hecht suggested Palestinians should try to leave through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. A short while later, the Israeli military said the Rafah crossing was closed, but Hamas officials later said Palestinians who had previously registered to enter Egypt would be able to do so.
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.”
In response to Israel’s aerial attacks, the spokesman of Hamas’ armed wing, Abu Obeida, said Monday night that the group will kill one Israeli civilian captive any time Israel targets civilians in their homes in Gaza “without prior warning.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen warned Hamas against harming any of the hostages, saying, “This war crime will not be forgiven.” Netanyahu appointed a former military commander to manage the hostage and missing persons crisis.
The Israeli military said more than 900 people already have been killed in Israel. In Gaza and the West Bank, 704 people have been killed, according to authorities there; Israel says hundreds of Hamas fighters are among them. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.
The surprise weekend attack by Hamas left a death toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria. That fomented calls to crush Hamas no matter the cost, rather than continuing to try to bottle it up in Gaza. Israel is run by its most hard-right government ever, dominated by ministers who adamantly reject Palestinian statehood.
Read: Israeli defense minister orders 'complete siege' on Gaza Strip with no electricity, food or fuel
Hamas, in turn, says it is ready for a long battle to end an Israeli occupation it says is no longer tolerable. Desperation has grown among Palestinians, many of whom see nothing to lose under unending Israeli control and increasing settler depredations in the West Bank, the blockade in Gaza and what they see as the world’s apathy.
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.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza, saying authorities would cut electricity and block the entry of food and fuel.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council aid group, warned that Israel’s siege would spell “utter disaster” for Gazans.
“There is no doubt that collective punishment is in violation of international law,” he told The Associated Press. “If and when it would lead to wounded children dying in hospitals because of lack of energy, electricity and supplies, it could amount to war crimes.”
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.
Myanmar military accused of bombing a displacement camp in a northern state, killing about 30
Myanmar’s military was accused of launching an airstrike on a camp for displaced persons in the northern state of Kachin late Monday that killed more than 30 people, including 13 children, a human rights group and local media said.
The attack on the Mung Lai Hkyet displacement camp in the northern part of Laiza, a town where the headquarters of the rebel Kachin Independence Army is based, also wounded about 60 people, a spokesperson for Kachin Human Rights Watch told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Laiza is about 324 kilometers (200 miles) northeast of Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city.
Read: 29 Bangladeshi citizens return home from Myanmar
The spokesperson, who asked to be identified only as Jacob for security reasons, said 19 adults and 13 children from the camp were killed by the airstrikes, which occurred around 11 p.m.
“We strongly condemn this inhumane killing. This action causes resentment among the Kachin people,” he said.
Kachin News Group, a local online news site, reported that more than 30 displaced persons were killed by the bombs dropped by jet fighters.
However, there was some uncertainty about how the attack was carried out, because it came suddenly and late at night. Other unverified media reports said the attack may have been carried out with drones or even artillery.
It was impossible to independently confirm details of the incident, though media sympathetic to the Kachin posted videos showing what they said was the attack’s aftermath, with images of dead bodies and flattened wooden structures.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, triggering widespread popular opposition. After peaceful demonstrations were put down with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and large parts of the country are now embroiled in conflict.
The military government in the past year has stepped up the use of airstrikes in combat against two enemies — the armed pro-democracy Peoples Defense Forces, which formed after the 2021 takeover, and ethnic minority groups such as the Kachin that have been fighting for greater autonomy for decades.
Read: US announces $116 million in humanitarian assistance to people in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Region
The military claims it targets only armed guerrilla forces and facilities, but churches and schools have also been hit and many civilians killed or wounded. Artillery is also frequently employed.
The Kachin are one of the stronger ethnic rebel groups and are capable of manufacturing some of their own armaments. They also have a loose alliance with the armed militias of the pro-democracy forces that were formed to fight army rule.
In October last year, the military carried out airstrikes that hit a celebration of the anniversary of the founding of the Kachin Independence Organization, the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army, near a village in Hpakant township, a remote mountainous area 167 kilometers (103 miles) northwest of Laiza. The attack killed as many as 80 people, including Kachin officers and soldiers, along with singers and musicians, jade mining entrepreneurs and other civilians.
Monday night’s attack, not yet acknowledged by the military government, came just a few days before it is supposed to host an event in the capital, Naypyitaw, to mark the eighth anniversary of the signing of a ceasefire agreement between the previous military-backed government and eight ethnic rebel armies.
Read:Bangladesh-Myanmar visa exemption reinstated
The larger ethnic rebel armies, including the Kachin and the Wa, refused to sign the ceasefire agreement.
Israel-Hamas war: Humanitarian groups scrambling to assist civilians
Humanitarian groups are scrambling to assist civilians caught in the war between Israel and Hamas and determine what aid operations are still safe to continue, efforts that are being complicated by an intensified blockade of Gaza and ongoing fighting.
Two days after Hamas militants went on a rampage that took the world by surprise, Israel increased airstrikes on Gaza and blocked off food, fuel and other supplies from going into the territory, a move that raised concerns at the United Nations and among aid groups operating in the area home to 2.3 million people. Hamas, in turn, pledged to kill Israelis it abducted if the country’s military bombs civilian targets in Gaza without warning.
Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands wounded on both sides, and aid groups operating in the region say there are needs both in Gaza and Israel.
More than 2 tons of medical supplies from the Egyptian Red Crescent have been sent to Gaza and efforts are underway to organize food and other deliveries, according to an Egyptian military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. But the United Nations and other aid groups are pleading for more access to help Palestinians who find themselves in the middle of intense fighting.
Doctors Without Borders, which is still operating in Gaza, has to rely on supplies it already has inside the territory because it can’t bring any more in, said Emmanuel Massart, a deputy desk coordinator with the organization in Brussels.
Read: Israel's intelligence prowess questioned after Hamas attack
The group — which says it only runs programs in Palestinian areas since Israel has strong emergency and health services — reported Monday that it provided treatments to more than 50 people following airstrikes at the Jabalia refugee camp located north of Gaza City. In addition to helping patients in Gaza, it said it was donating medical supplies to other clinics and hospitals, which have become overcrowded with patients and are experiencing shortages of drugs and fuel that can be used for generators.
If Doctors Without Borders is not able to resupply fairly quickly, Massart said, it will run out of supplies it can use to operate on patients who might be wounded. He also said since the facilities the organization uses are running on generators due to the low supply of electricity, cutting off fuel will present a “huge problem.”
“If there is no fuel anymore, there is no medical facilities anymore because we cannot run our medical facility without the energy,” Massart said.
The war has also been deeply disruptive to work Mercy Corps has been doing to provide people in Gaza with necessities like food and water, said Arnaud Quemin, the Middle East regional director for the organization. Right now, he said the team on the ground is trying to find a scenario that would enable them to get back to work. The blockade of food and other supplies into Gaza is a major worry.
“We are very concerned with the way things are going at this point because it looks like it’s going to get worse – very soon,” Quemin said. The sealing of Gaza, he said, will create “humanitarian needs very quickly.”
Read: Israel intensifies its strikes and vows to besiege Gaza as it scours south for Hamas fighters
Governments have also been weighing how to respond.
As the fighting intensified, the European Union on late Monday reversed an earlier announcement by an EU commissioner that the bloc was “immediately” suspending aid for Palestinian authorities. Instead, the 27-nation group said it would urgently review the assistance it provides in the wake of Hamas’ attacks on Israel. Two European countries — Germany and Austria — said they were suspending development aid for Palestinian areas.
Meanwhile, some organizations are stepping up aid efforts in Israel, which has seen displacement because of the violence.
Naomi Adler, CEO of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, said a trauma center in Jerusalem that’s owned by the organization is treating wounded Israeli soldiers and civilians. About 90% of the patients in the center right now are soldiers, who are typically the first to be brought in for traumatic injuries, Adler said. But the center also accepts anyone who’s wounded or injured in the country.
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a Jewish humanitarian organization, said on Sunday that it was activating its emergency response team in Israel, where it runs programs to support people with disabilities, the elderly and children and families who’ve been impacted by the war and prior conflicts. The organization said it was working with its partners, including in the Israeli government, to address what it called an unprecedented emergency.
JDC’s CEO Ariel Zwang said among other things the nonprofit is helping teachers, social workers and other caregivers provide support to those who’ve suffered trauma and tragedies from the events of the past few days. She said it will help nursey teachers, for example, explain to children why some of their classmates are suddenly missing.
“If you’re a teacher now, if you know the children are traumatized, you need special skills and special training in order to manage what you’re experiencing and provide for the emotional needs, which are extraordinary at this time, of your youngest charges,” Zwang said.
Read: Israel intensifies Gaza strikes and battles to repel Hamas, with over 1,100 dead in fighting so far
One organization that helps Palestinian children is shifting its focus, too. Steve Sosebee, the president of Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, a U.S.-based charity that helps children in need travel to the U.S. for medical treatment, said given the war, the fund is now looking away from long-term programs and toward more urgent needs for food, medication, clothing and other types of basic humanitarian aid. But like others, he noted the blockade and security risks to its Gaza staff makes it more challenging to do that.
“There are no areas of security, there are no safe havens,” Sosebee said. “And therefore, it’s very difficult for us to be out in the field providing humanitarian aid when there are no safe places from the constant bombing and attacks that are taking place over the last 72 hours.”
Read more: Everything you need to know about Hamas
US starts delivering munitions, military equipment to Israel
The U.S. has already begun delivering critically needed munitions and military equipment to Israel, the White House said Monday, as the Pentagon reviews its inventories to see what else can be sent quickly to boost its ally in the three-day-old war with Hamas.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, confirmed Monday evening that the first batch of military aid in the wake of the violent assault by Hamas militants is “making its way” to Israel.
The delivery came as President Joe Biden prepared to give formal remarks on the attacks from the White House on Tuesday afternoon, after he confirmed that at least 11 Americans were killed in the violence over the weekend.
“We fully expect there will be additional requests for security assistance for Israel as they continue to expend munitions in this fight,” Kirby said. "We will stay in lockstep with them, making sure that we’re filling their needs as best we can and as fast as we can.”
Also on Monday, a senior Defense Department official warned that the U.S. is closely watching Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed groups, noting that the decision to shift American ships in the region was to deter any of these groups from entering or expanding the conflict against Israel. The official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive shipments.
Read: Israel's Netanyahu says offensive against Hamas will 'reverberate' for generations
The official said the U.S. is “flooding the zone” with calls and other messages so that extremist groups and other nations know they should not question America's commitment to supporting the defense of Israel. The official, however, would not comment on whether U.S. military forces would be used at all, and Kirby later emphasized that “there is no intention to put U.S. boots on the ground.”
Meanwhile, Kirby said U.S. officials have yet to identify a direct link from the Hamas militants who executed this weekend's deadly attacks to Iran itself, although the country has a “degree of complicity” considering its long support for the group.
While the Pentagon official said the U.S. has the ability to supply weapons to Ukraine and Israel and maintain security for America, the rapid delivery of munitions to the new war has raised concerns.
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said Congress must pass more funding quickly for the U.S. to be able to give both Israel and Ukraine the weapons and munitions they both now need.
“The intent is to lean forward in support of Israel,” she said. "But in particular with munitions and the ability to support Israel and Ukraine simultaneously, additional funding is needed to increase our capacity to expand production and then also pay for the munitions themselves.”
At the White House, officials were more cautious, emphasizing that the U.S. government has existing funding to support Israel for the time being. But it was becoming clear that the administration is now facing potentially competing requests from Israel and Ukraine for additional weaponry.
“If we need — and it's an ‘if’, but — if we need to go back to Capitol Hill for additional funding support for Israel, we will absolutely do that," Kirby said. Referring to Israel and Ukraine, he added, “We are a large enough, big enough, economically viable and vibrant enough country to be able to support both.”
Read: Israel vows complete siege on Gaza as it strikes Palestinian territory after incursion by Hamas
On Capitol Hill, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers expressed support for Israel, although immediate congressional action was virtually impossible with the House remaining without a speaker and the Senate out of Washington until next week. Also uncertain is whether the debate over further assistance to Ukraine, which is opposed by a group of hard-right Republicans, will complicate efforts to pass assistance for Israel.
Wormuth, speaking at the annual Association of the United States Army conference in Washington, said the administration is still “in the early stage of the process of evaluating our ability to support what the IDF needs,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces. She did not provide details, but Doug Bush, the Army's assistant secretary for acquisition, told reporters at the conference that conversations are underway about what the U.S. can provide. He said it likely will be a wide range of equipment, from small arms to sophisticated munitions.
Most of the weaponry sent already to help Ukraine has come from Army stocks and defense contractors at a rate that has challenged the global supply chain, and while the Army has recently ramped up production of some critical lines, such as 155 mm ammunition for howitzers, they are not yet at full speed.
With a new ground offensive in Gaza imminent following the Saturday surprise attack by Hamas, Army officials said Monday they were concerned about the ability to meet additional demand for ground munitions and Congress needed to act quickly to provide help in time.
In addition to the 11 American citizens whose deaths Biden confirmed, an undetermined number remain unaccounted for. It was not yet clear if the missing are dead, in hiding, or had been taken hostage.
Biden said the U.S. believes it is likely that American citizens may be among those being held hostage by Hamas, but officials are working to confirm that.
“I have directed my team to work with their Israeli counterparts on every aspect of the hostage crisis, including sharing intelligence and deploying experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts,” Biden said in a statement.
To underscore U.S. solidarity with Israel, the White House was lit in the blue and white colors of the Israeli flag on Monday night.
The attack by Hamas and Israel's retaliation have left more than 1,600 dead and thousands wounded on both sides.
In the aftermath of the Hamas attack, the White House has asked Senate leaders to fast track confirmation of President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the next ambassador to Israel, former Obama-era Treasury Secretary and White House chief of staff Jack Lew, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity. The White House has received assurances that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will push forward hearings for Lew, the official added. The U.S. has been without an ambassador since the departure of Ambassador Tom Nides in July.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday he has ordered the Ford carrier strike group to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, and its approximately 5,000 sailors and deck of warplanes will be accompanied by cruisers and destroyers in a show of force that is meant to be ready to respond to anything, from possibly interdicting additional weapons from reaching Hamas and conducting surveillance.
The senior Defense Department official said worries about Hezbollah opening a second front of violence against Israel was the main reason for moving the ships to the Eastern Mediterranean. The official said the U.S. is deeply concerned Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed groups will make the wrong decision to try to “pile on” and widen the war.
The Norfolk, Virginia-based carrier strike group already was in the Mediterranean. Last week it was conducting naval exercises with Italy in the Ionian Sea. The carrier is in its first full deployment.
Everything you need to know about Hamas
Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, launched an attack inside Israel over the weekend, killing hundreds and taking others hostage. Its unprecedented breach of the border sent fighters inside border communities and military installations, shocked Israel and its allies, and raised questions about the group’s capabilities and strategy.
WHAT IS HAMAS?
The group was founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian refugee living in Gaza, during the first intifada, or uprising, which was marked by widespread protests against Israel’s occupation.
Hamas is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, and a recognition of the group’s roots and early ties to one of the Sunni world’s most prominent groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in the 1920s.
The group has vowed to annihilate Israel and has been responsible for many suicide bombings and other deadly attacks on civilians and Israeli soldiers.
The U.S. State Department has designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1997. The European Union and other Western countries also consider it a terrorist organization.
Hamas won 2006 parliamentary elections elections and in 2007 violently seized control of the Gaza Strip from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority, dominated by rival Fatah movement, administers semi-autonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israel responded to the Hamas takeover with a blockade on Gaza, restricting movement of people and goods in and out of the territory in a step it says is needed to keep the group from developing weapons. The blockade has ravaged Gaza's economy, and Palestinians accuse Israel of collective punishment.
Over the years, Hamas received backing from Arab countries, such as Qatar and Turkey. Recently, it's moved closer to Iran and its allies.
Read more: What to know as war between Israel and Hamas rages on for a fourth day
WHO ARE HAMAS' LEADERS?
Hamas founder and spiritual leader Yassin — a paralyzed man who used a wheelchair — spent years in Israeli prisons and oversaw the establishment of Hamas' military wing, which carried out its first suicide attack in 1993.
Israeli forces have targeted Hamas leaders throughout the years, killing Yassin in 2004.
Khaled Mashaal, an exiled Hamas member who survived an earlier Israeli assassination attempt, became the group’s leader soon after.
Yehia Sinwar, in Gaza, and Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in exile, are Hamas' current leaders. They realigned the group’s leadership with Iran and its allies, including Lebanon's Hezbollah. Since then, many of the group’s leaders relocated to Beirut.
Read more: Israel strikes and seals off Gaza after incursion by Hamas, which vows to execute hostages
WHAT DOES HAMAS WANT?
Hamas has always espoused violence as a means to liberate occupied Palestinian territories and has called for the annihilation of Israel.
Hamas has carried out suicide bombings and over the years fired tens of thousands of increasingly powerful rockets from Gaza into Israel. It also established a network of tunnels running from Gaza to Egypt to smuggle in weapons, as well as attack tunnels burrowing into Israel.
In recent years, Hamas had appeared to be more focused on running Gaza than attacking Israel.
WHY NOW?
In recent years, Israel has made peace deals with Arab countries without having to make concessions in its conflict with the Palestinians. The U.S. has recently been trying to broker a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a bitter rival of Hamas' Iranian backers.
Meanwhile, Israel's new far-right government was working to cement Israeli settlements in the West Bank despite Palestinian opposition.
Hamas leaders say an Israeli crackdown on militants in the West Bank, continued construction of settlements — which the international community considers to be illegal — thousands of prisoners in Israeli jails, and its ongoing blockade of Gaza pushed it to attack.
Its leaders say hundreds of its 40,000 fighters took part in the assault. Israel says the group has about 30,000 fighters and an arsenal of rockets, including some with a range of about 250 kilometers (155 miles), and unmanned drones.
Read more: Israel-Hamas war: Humanitarian groups scrambling to assist civilians
Israel strikes and seals off Gaza after incursion by Hamas, which vows to execute hostages
Israel increased airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and sealed it off from food, fuel and other supplies Monday in retaliation for a bloody incursion by Hamas militants, as the war's death toll rose to nearly 1,600 on both sides. Hamas also escalated the conflict, pledging to kill captured Israelis if attacks targeted civilians without warnings.
In the war's third day, Israel was still finding bodies from Hamas' stunning weekend attack into southern Israeli towns. Rescue workers found 100 bodies in the tiny farming community of Be'eri — around 10% of its population — after a long hostage standoff with gunmen. In Gaza, tens of thousands fled their homes as relentless airstrikes leveled buildings.
The Israeli military said it had largely gained control in the south after the attack caught its vaunted military and intelligence apparatus completely off guard and led to fierce battles in its streets for the first time in decades. Hamas and other militants in Gaza say they are holding more than 130 soldiers and civilians snatched from inside Israel.
Israeli tanks and drones were deployed to guard breaches in the Gaza border fence to prevent new incursions. Thousands of Israelis were evacuated from more than a dozen towns near Gaza, and the military summoned 300,000 reservists — a massive mobilization in a short time.
The moves, along with Israel’s formal declaration of war on Sunday, pointed to Israel increasingly shifting to the offensive against Hamas, threatening greater destruction in the densely populated, impoverished Gaza Strip.
Read: Israel intensifies its strikes and vows to besiege Gaza as it scours south for Hamas fighters
“We have only started striking Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a nationally televised address. “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”
As the Israeli military brought additional forces near the border, a major question was whether it will launch a ground assault into the tiny Mediterranean coastal territory. The last ground assault was in 2014.
The Israeli military said more than 900 people already have been killed in Israel. In Gaza, more than 680 people have been killed, according to authorities there; Israel says hundreds of Hamas fighters are among them. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.
In response to Israel's aerial attacks, the spokesman of Hamas' armed wing, Abu Obeida, said Monday night that the group will kill one Israeli civilian captive any time Israel targets civilians in their homes in Gaza “without prior warning.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen warned Hamas against harming any of the hostages, saying, “This war crime will not be forgiven.” Netanyahu appointed a former military commander to manage the hostage and missing persons crisis.
Israel and Hamas have had repeated conflicts in past years, often sparked by tensions around a Jerusalem holy site. This time, the context has become potentially more explosive. Both sides talk of shattering with violence a yearslong Israeli-Palestinian deadlock left by the moribund peace process.
Read: Israel's intelligence prowess questioned after Hamas attack
The surprise weekend attack by Hamas left a death toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria. That fomented calls to crush Hamas no matter the cost, rather than continuing to try to bottle it up in Gaza. Israel is run by its most hard-right government ever, dominated by ministers who adamantly reject Palestinian statehood.
Hamas, in turn, says it is ready for a long battle to end an Israeli occupation it says is no longer tolerable. Desperation has grown among Palestinians, many of whom see nothing to lose under unending Israeli control and increasing settler depredations in the West Bank, the blockade in Gaza and what they see as the world’s apathy.
Attacks by both sides created more scenes of devastation Monday. In Israel's southern coastal city of Ashkelon, a man holding a crutch with one hand and an older boy with the other joined evacuees being shepherded from a street after a rocket blew out the front of a house.
In Gaza, Palestinians passed the bodies of the dead through dense crowds of men in the rubble in the Jebaliya refugee camp.
Early Monday evening, the sound of explosions echoed over Jerusalem when a volley of rockets fired from Gaza hit two neighborhoods — a sign of Hamas’s reach. Israeli media said seven were wounded.
Israeli warplanes carried out an intense bombardment of Rimal, a residential and commercial district of central Gaza City, after issuing warnings for residents to evacuate. Amid continuous explosions, the building housing the headquarters of the Palestinian Telecommunications Company was destroyed.
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.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza, saying authorities would cut electricity and block the entry of food and fuel.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council aid group, warned that Israel’s siege would spell “utter disaster” for Gazans.
“There is no doubt that collective punishment is in violation of international law,” he told The Associated Press. “If and when it would lead to wounded children dying in hospitals because of lack of energy, electricity and supplies, it could amount to war crimes.”
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.
Read: Israeli and Palestinian supporters rally across U.S. as Israel declares war after Hamas attack
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.
Tens of thousands of Gaza residents continued to flee. 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. agencies for Palestinian refugees, is sheltering more than 137,000 people in schools across the territory. Families have taken in some 41,000 others.
In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, an Israeli airstrike early Monday killed 19 people, including women and children, said Talat Barhoum, a doctor at the local Al-Najjar Hospital.
Hundreds of Hamas militants were buried under rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel in the past 48 hours, according to Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. His claims could not be confirmed.
New exchanges on Israel’s northern border Monday raised worries that the war could spread to a new front.
Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad group slipped from Lebanon into Israel, sparking Israeli shelling into southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said five of its members were killed, and it retaliated with a volley of rockets and mortars at two Israeli army bases across the border.
After breaking through Israeli barriers with explosives at daybreak Saturday, an estimated 1,000 Hamas gunmen rampaged for hours, gunning down civilians and snatching people in towns, along highways and at a techno music festival attended by thousands in the desert. Palestinian militants have also launched around 4,400 rockets at Israel, according to the military.
Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua told the AP that the group’s fighters continued to battle outside Gaza and had captured more Israelis as recently as Monday morning.
He said the group aims to free all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, which in the past has agreed to lopsided exchange deals in which it released large numbers of prisoners for individual captives or even the remains of soldiers.
Among the captives are soldiers and civilians, including women, children and older adults, mostly Israelis but also some people of other nationalities.
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.
Read: Hamas attack on Israel thrusts Biden into Mideast crisis and has him fending off GOP criticism
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.
Israel-Hamas war: Trust in Israeli army shattered
It was, they thought, an ironclad social contract. Israeli citizens would serve in the military and live along enemy borders. In exchange, the army would defend them.
That contract was shattered Saturday when hundreds of Hamas militants breached Israel’s defenses from the Gaza Strip, pouring in by air, land and sea on a rampage that would leave hundreds dead. The infiltration caught Israel’s storied high-tech army completely unaware and stunned a country that prides itself on military prowess.
Further shocking Israelis was how long it took the military to respond. As thousands in southern Israel suddenly found themselves besieged, their cries for help went unanswered for hours. Holed up inside homes and safe rooms as militants sprayed bullets, torched homes and hurled grenades, they turned in desperation to social media, to journalists and to friends, beseeching the army to save them.
READ: Israel's Netanyahu says offensive against Hamas will 'reverberate' for generations
The weekend attacks and the military's response brought an unsettling new sense of vulnerability and abandonment. Thousands of families had no idea whether loved ones were alive or had been taken as captives to Gaza. At the height of the violence, there was no one to turn to for guidance or information. Contact centers were eventually set up, but the focus was on soliciting information from families rather than offering it.
Six members of Jonathan Silver's family are missing, and he approached authorities for help. At least three relatives are captive in Gaza, he said, and the others are assumed to be there, too. He saw video of a cousin and two children taken hostage from their kibbutz, Nir Oz.
But the family has received no information, Silver said.
“We tried to reach everybody – the homeland command, police, friends, acquaintances, people on the kibbutz,” he said. And for hours, “there was no one to talk to.”
He's particularly concerned for his aunt, who has Parkinson’s disease and needs her medication. He's frustrated, but he also said now is not the time to criticize too deeply.
READ: Israel vows complete siege on Gaza as it strikes Palestinian territory after incursion by Hamas
“I have a lot of questions and a lot to say. The day of reckoning will come,” he said, but “now I prefer to stand beside the army.”
In Israel, military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women. In the eyes of many citizens, it is the glue that keeps the country together in a region widely hostile to its presence, and it's recognized worldwide for its technological advances and intelligence-gathering capabilities.
That it could be taken so completely by surprise by a militant group is something Israelis are hard-pressed to fathom.
For Merav Leshem Gonen, a feeling of helplessness gripped her when her daughter called in a panic from a music festival that was attacked.
"Mommy, we were bombed. They shot at us. The car was shot, we cannot drive, everybody here is hurt,” Gonen recounted her daughter saying.
“She was talking to me and said, ‘Mommy, help us, we don’t know what to do.’ And I’m saying, ’We love you, and it’s OK. We are trying to find a way to take you out of there. We are sending people,’" Gonen told a news conference outside Tel Aviv. "And I know I’m lying because we don’t have answers, and we didn’t have any answers. Nobody had.”
READ: 9 US citizens killed in Israel, Hamas conflict: NSC
Journalist Amir Tibon had good fortune that many others didn’t: While the army struggled to regroup, his 62-year-old father, a retired general, entered the breach. Noam Tibon headed from his home in Tel Aviv to Nahal Oz, a kibbutz where his son, his wife and their two young daughters were hunkering in a safe room. On the way, he connected with another retired general and a group of commandoes.
After firefights with militants along the way, the elder Tibon extricated his son and family. More than a dozen others at Nahal Oz did not survive.
“The terms of the contract between us and the state had always been clear: We protect the border, and the state protects us,” Amir Tibon wrote in an article retelling the rescue for his newspaper, Haaretz.
“We fulfilled our share of the deal heroically. For all too many of our beloved friends and neighbors, on this black day of Saturday, October 7, the state of Israel did not fulfill its share.”
Maayan Zin said she learned that her two daughters had been abducted when a relative sent her photos from a Telegram group appearing to show them sitting on mattresses in captivity. She's among dozens of distraught families who say there's been a lack of support from Israeli authorities about their loved ones held in Gaza.
READ: Israel intensifies its strikes and vows to besiege Gaza as it scours south for Hamas fighters
“There is no information. No one has contacted me since yesterday. Not the army, not the government, not the police,” she said.
At first, she couldn't believe what she saw in the images. “I thought it was Photoshopped,” she said.
But videos she found online confirmed her worst fears. Dafna, 15, and Ella, 8, were shown weeping and terrified. Their father, her ex-husband, was seen being taken across the border into Gaza, his leg bleeding heavily.
“Just bring my daughters home,” Zin pleaded. “Bring everybody home.”
Israel's Netanyahu says offensive against Hamas will 'reverberate' for generations
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Monday that Israel's fierce offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has “only started.”
Netanyahu delivered the pronouncement in a nationally televised address as Israel pressed ahead with a third day of heavy airstrikes in Gaza following Hamas' unprecedented and deadly incursion into Israel.
“We have only started striking Hamas,” he said. “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”
Israel formally declared war on Sunday. The hostilities so far have killed around 900 people in Israel and more than 680 people in Gaza, according to authorities on each side.
AIRSTRIKE IN GAZA CITY KILLS TWO PALESTINIAN JOURNALISTS
An Israeli airstrike in Gaza City killed two Palestinian journalists early Tuesday, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Wafa identified the journalists as editor Saeed Al-Taweel and photographer Mohammed Sobih. The airstrike occurred close to an area housing several media offices.
Three Palestinian journalists reportedly were shot and killed while reporting in Gaza on Saturday. The Committee to Protect Journalists, citing Palestinian press freedom groups, identified two of them as photographer Ibrahim Mohammad Lafi and reporter Mohammad Jarghoun. CPJ said it confirmed that freelance reporter Mohammad El-Salhi also was killed.
Lafi worked for Ain Media, and Jarghoun reported for Smart Media, CPJ said.
ISRAEL SAYS DEPUTY COMMANDER KILLED IN CLASHES ON BORDER WITH LEBANON
Israel’s military said early Tuesday that a deputy Israeli commander was killed in clashes on the northern border with Lebanon.
READ: Israel vows complete siege on Gaza as it strikes Palestinian territory after incursion by Hamas
The military identified the deputy commander as Alim Abdallah, but did not specify the exact circumstances of his death.
Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad group slipped from Lebanon into Israel, sparking Israeli shelling into southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said five of its members were killed, and it retaliated with a volley of rockets and mortars at two Israeli army bases across the border.
NUMBER OF THOSE DISPLACED IN GAZA SURPASSES 187,000, U.N. OFFICE SAYS
As retaliatory Israeli airstrikes continue, more than 187,500 people have been displaced in Gaza since the beginning of the conflict, according to a report from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, is hosting more than 137,000 people in schools across the territory. The report says airstrikes have razed 790 housing units and severely damaged 5,330 in the territory of 2.3 million people.
OCHA said damage to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in Gaza has disrupted service for more than 400,000 people.
ISRAEL STRIKES TWO TUNNELS USED BY HAMAS MILITANTS, MILITARY SAYS
The Israeli military said early Tuesday that it struck two tunnels used by Hamas militants to enter Israeli territory.
READ: 9 US citizens killed in Israel, Hamas conflict: NSC
The news came a day after 70 militants infiltrated the Be'eri kibbutz Monday night. The small farming community has been a flashpoint of the conflict — the scene of a hostage standoff during the attack.
Authorities did not immediately provide more information on the location of the tunnels.
The militant group has used tunnels in the past. It has an established a network running from Gaza to Egypt to smuggle in weapons, as well as attack tunnels burrowing into Israel.
AT LEAST 11 US CITIZENS HAVE BEEN KILLED, BIDEN SAYS
At least 11 U.S. citizens have been confirmed dead in the surprise Hamas attacks, U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday.
Biden also said the U.S. government believes it is “likely” that Americans are among those currently being held hostage by Hamas militants, while other U.S. citizens are still unaccounted for after the deadly assault.
“My heart goes out to every family impacted by the horrible events of the past few days,” Biden said in a statement. “The pain these families have endured, the enormity of their loss, and the agony of those still awaiting information is unfathomable.”
READ: What to know as Israel declares war, bombards Gaza Strip after unprecedented Hamas attack
He stressed that the State Department is offering assistance for U.S. citizens who are currently in Israel, and air and ground options to leave the country are still available for those who choose to do so. He also said federal law enforcement officials are “closely monitoring” potential domestic threats stemming from the weekend attacks.
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER AT SYNAGOGUE TO SUPPORT ISRAEL
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak joined a large crowd gathered for prayer at a London synagogue on Monday to underline his solidarity with Israel.
Addressing the congregation at Finchley United Synagogue in north London, Sunak condemned Hamas' bloody incursion into Israel on Saturday as “evil.”
“There are not two sides to these events. There is no question of balance. I stand with Israel,” he said. “The United Kingdom stands with Israel against this terrorism today, tomorrow and always.”
He also sought to assure Britain’s Jewish community that he will do everything to protect them amid concerns about the rise of antisemitism.
HUNDREDS OF RIVAL PROTESTERS HOLD RALLIES IN US, EUROPE
Thousands of pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters held vocal but peaceful gatherings Monday, at a historic French plaza and outside Israeli embassies in London and Athens, Greece.
Several thousand people rallied in Paris in support of Israel, marching to the Trocadero Plaza overlooking the Eiffel Tower. The monument was lit up in the colors of the Israeli flag, with a white Star of David in the middle, in a gesture of solidarity announced by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
READ: Israel intensifies its strikes and vows to besiege Gaza as it scours south for Hamas fighters
In Athens, an estimated 250 people, mostly Palestinian expatriates and members of Greek left-wing groups, held a peaceful protest outside the Israeli embassy to show solidarity with Palestinians. Protesters waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans, while a strong police contingent blocked off access to the embassy building.
In London, hundreds chanted “Israel is a terrorist state” and “Free Palestine” and some waved signs calling for Israel to “end the occupation.”
Meanwhile, in the U.S., supporters of Israel and of the Palestinians held competing rallies in several cities, including in New York, where rival protesters shouted at each other near U.N. headquarters amid a massive police presence.
EUROPEAN UNION REVERSES SUSPENSION OF AID TO PALESTINIAN AUTHORITIES
The European Union late Monday reversed an earlier announcement by an EU commissioner that the bloc was immediately suspending aid for Palestinian authorities and instead said it would urgently review such assistance in the wake of the attacks on Israel by Hamas.
“There will be no suspension of payments” at the moment, a terse European Commission statement said late Monday, five hours after EU Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi had said that all payments from the development program for Palestinians would be immediately suspended.
No immediate explanation for the reversal was given. The reversal on a 691 million-euro ($730 million) program capped an embarrassing day at the EU’s executive at a time of extreme geopolitical sensitivities.
READ: Israeli defense minister orders 'complete siege' on Gaza Strip with no electricity, food or fuel
MORE THAN 680 PEOPLE KILLED IN GAZA, HEALTH MINISTRY SAYS
The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said Monday that more than 680 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes following an unprecedented Hamas attack.
The ministry said more than 3,700 people have been wounded.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since the Saturday attack, striking hundreds of targets and leaving vast destruction.
UN SAYS EFFORTS UNDERWAY TO PREVENT CONFLICT FROM SPREADING
The United Nations says intense diplomatic activity is taking place aimed at ensuring that regional and international leaders are on the same page in trying to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hamas from spreading.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Monday that he and U.N. Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland are engaging with key parties in the region.
Guterres has spoken to Israel’s president and Jordan’s king and expects to talk to the Palestinian president, Israel’s prime minister, Egypt’s president and Lebanon’s prime minister, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Wennesland has been in touch with his counterparts from the United States, European Union, Qatar, Lebanon and others.
MORE THAN 100 BODIES FOUND IN FARMING COMMUNITY, ISRAEL SAYS
Israeli rescue service Zaka says more than 100 bodies have been recovered from a small farming community that was the scene of a hostage standoff during Hamas’ attack against Israel.
The figure is part of the total 900 reportedly killed in Hamas’ multi-pronged attack. Be'eri, a kibbutz, had a population of about 1,000 people before the attack.
CHEVRON TO STOP PRODUCTION IN MEDITERRANEAN OFF ISRAEL COAST
American oil giant Chevron Corp. said Monday that at Israel’s instruction it had stopped production at its offshore Tamar natural gas rig in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel.
READ: Israel's intelligence prowess questioned after Hamas attack
In a statement announcing the action, the company declined to discuss any security issues and didn't say why Israel ordered it.
The Tamar field, which went online in 2013, is believed to hold more than 300 billion cubic meters of gas. Chevron and the Israeli-American company Isramco each own around a third of Tamar, with the remainder held by smaller firms.
There have been threats previously against Israel’s offshore oil rigs by militant groups in the region and Lebanon has disputed Israel’s maritime boundaries.
The ongoing fighting in Israel and the Gaza Strip has sparked a jump in crude oil prices, in part over a fear of a wider regional conflict breaking out. Israel and the Palestinian territories don’t produce oil. Benchmark Brent crude traded up Monday to over $87 a barrel.
HEZBOLLAH SAYS ONLY 3 MEMBERS KILLED IN CONFLICT
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group says only three of its members were killed along the border with Israel during an exchange of fire Monday.
Earlier Monday, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group had said that five members were killed during Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon.
Also Monday, the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said in a statement that it sent four gunmen across Lebanon’s border into Israel as part of the Hamas-led attack that started over the weekend. Israeli Defense Forces reported that its troops shot and killed several gunmen who crossed into the country from Lebanon.
The Lebanese military called on residents of border towns to “take the utmost precautions.” Families in several towns in southern Lebanon started fleeing north as the Israeli shelling continued.
HAMAS WING WARNS THAT ISRAELI STRIKES WILL BRING HOSTAGE DEATHS
The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas has warned that it will kill an Israeli hostage every time Israel's military bombs civilian targets in the Gaza Strip without warning.
Abu Obeida, the spokesman of the Qassam Brigades, said in an audio released Monday night that the threat was a response to intense air strikes by Israel on civilian areas.
“We have decided to put an end to this and as of now, we declare that any targeting of our people in their homes without prior warning will be regrettably faced with the execution of one the hostages of civilians we are holding,” he said.
In a video statement Monday, Israel’s foreign minister warned Hamas against harming any of the hostages who were taken from Israel and being held in Gaza. Eli Cohen said Israel was committed to bringing the hostages home “in the spirit of mutual responsibility.”
“We demand Hamas not to harm any of the hostages, Cohen said. “This war crime will not be forgiven,” he added.
TURKEY'S LEADER HOLDS CALLS WITH PALESTINIAN, ISRAELI PRESIDENTS
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held back-to-back telephone calls with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, according to Erdogan’s press office.
Erdogan and Abbas discussed the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas. “President Erdogan stated that Turkey is making every effort to end the conflicts in the region and ensure calm as soon as possible” a statement from his press office said.
ARAB LEAGUE SCHEDULES MEETING AT REQUEST OF PALESTINIANS
Arab foreign ministers plan to convene Wednesday in Cairo for a meeting on the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant groups in Gaza.
Arab League Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki said the ministers would discuss Arab efforts to “stop the Israeli aggression” on Gaza.
The meeting was called by the Palestinians.