Israeli military says 155 hostages 'confirmed' in Hamas hands

The Israeli military said Sunday it had confirmed 155 people were being held hostage by Hamas since the Palestinian militant group staged its deadly attack last week.

Families of “155 hostages” have been contacted by the authorities, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said, updating an earlier figure confirming 126 hostages.

Israel declared war on the Islamist group last Sunday, a day after waves of fighters broke through the heavily fortified border and shot, stabbed and burned to death more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Seven days of relentless bombing targeting those who masterminded the attack have flattened neighbourhoods and left at least 2,670 people dead in the Gaza Strip, the majority ordinary Palestinians.

Israel has massed thousands of troops and heavy weaponry in the desert south of the country, waiting for the green light to go in to northern Gaza.

The army has told 1.1 million Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip — nearly half of its 2.4-million population — to head south to safety.

The United States, which has given unequivocal backing to Israel, is concerned about violence spreading, and has sent two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean as a deterrent.

In Washington, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said they feared the prospect of Iran becoming “directly engaged”, after it praised the Hamas attack but insisted it was not involved.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has in recent days toured Middle Eastern capitals in a frantic round of diplomacy to try to avert a wider crisis in the volatile region.

On Sunday, he pointed to “determination in every country I went to make sure that this doesn’t spread,” as he left Egypt.

Blinken has appealed to China to use its influence in the region to ease tensions.

But on Sunday Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Israel’s response had “gone beyond the scope of self-defence”.

He called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his emergency government to “cease its collective punishment of the people of Gaza”.

With inputs from AFP