Intense air strikes pound Gaza as Israel seeks revenge for Hamas attacks

Despite a Hamas warning to execute a captive for every home struck, Israel declared on Tuesday that it has retaken control of the Gaza border after bombarding the territory with the strongest air assaults in the 75-year history of its confrontation with the Palestinians.

Israel has threatened to exact “mighty revenge” after gunmen rampaged through its cities, leaving the bloodiest attack in its history behind them and the streets littered with bodies. It has mobilised tens of thousands of reservists and imposed a complete siege on the 2.3 million-person-strong Gaza Strip.

Despite a Hamas warning to execute a captive for every home struck, Israel declared on Tuesday that it has retaken control of the Gaza border after bombarding the territory with the strongest air assaults in the 75-year history of its confrontation with the Palestinians.

Israel has threatened to exact “mighty revenge” after Hamas terrorists rampaged through its cities, leaving the bloodiest attack in its history behind them and the streets littered with bodies. It has mobilised tens of thousands of reservists and imposed a complete siege on the 2.3 million-person-strong Gaza Strip.

Bodies were placed on stretchers and lay out on the ground in the mortuary of the Khan Younis hospital in Gaza. There was no more room for the dead, so medics called for family to quickly pick up bodies.

A former municipal building that was being used as an emergency refuge for displaced families was struck and suffered significant casualties.

“There is an extraordinary number of martyrs, people are still under the rubble, some friends are either martyrs or wounded,” said a Ala Abu Tair, 35, who had sought shelter there with his family after fleeing Abassan Al-Kabira near the border. “No place is safe in Gaza, as you see they hit everywhere.”

While they were outside reporting, three Gaza journalists were murdered when an Israeli rocket struck a structure. Since Saturday, six journalists have died in Gaza, bringing the total to six.

The Israeli military once suggested that citizens in Gaza move to Egypt, only to quickly clarify that the crossing was blocked and there was no way out.

As for Hamas operatives, they had “nowhere to hide in Gaza”, said military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. “We will reach them everywhere.”

There has still not been a full official tally of all those killed and missing in Saturday’s strikes in Israel. Volunteers wearing yellow vests and face masks gravely carried the deceased out of homes on stretchers in the southern village of Be’eri, where more than 100 bodies had been recovered.

A house’s floor was covered in a long, wide path of blood where bodies had been dragged out onto the street from a blood-soaked kitchen where furniture had been flipped over.

“The thing I want the most is to wake up from this nightmare,” said Elad Hakim, a survivor from a music festival where Hamas had killed 260 partygoers at dawn. “Everything was so amazing, the best party I’ve been to in my life, until it… from paradise to hell, in one second.”

The Gaza Strip, which Israel abandoned in 2005 and has kept under blockade since Hamas seized power there in 2007, may be the target of its upcoming ground operation. It announced a total siege on Monday, which would prevent even food and fuel from getting to the strip.

Israel required more than two days to finally close off the multi-billion dollar, high-tech barrier wall that was supposed to be indestructible since the attack on Saturday utterly caught them off surprise.

Early on Tuesday, military spokesman Hagari stated there had been no additional infiltrations from Gaza since the day before.

Now, Israeli leaders must choose whether to restrain their reprisal in order to protect the hostages. On Monday, the spokesperson for Hamas, Abu Ubaida, threatened to kill one person.

At a critical time when Israel was close to agreeing to normalise relations with the wealthiest Arab nation, Saudi Arabia, the strikes on Saturday and Israel’s response upended diplomatic arrangements in the Middle East.

Israel has been warmly supported by Western nations. There have been protests on the streets of Arab cities in favour of the Palestinians. Iran, who supports Hamas, cheered the assaults but denied having any involvement with them directly.

On Tuesday, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared that Iran had kissed the hands of the attack’s architects, but that anyone who thought Iran was responsible for them was mistaken. He claimed that Israel had suffered an irreparable military and intelligence defeat as a result of the attacks.

The Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, Iran’s other major ally in the region, was drawn into the fighting during a fatal skirmish on Israel’s northern border on Monday, raising concerns about the opening of a second front in the conflict. It claimed that no incursion into Israel had its approval.

(With agency inputs)