More than 1,600 people have been killed since the Hamas militant group launched a surprise assault on Israel from Gaza early Saturday, leading Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare “we are at war.”
An Israeli embassy spokesperson said Monday the death toll has risen to at least 900 Israelis, most of them civilians. Another 2,500 were reported wounded, IDF international spokesperson Lt. Col. (Res.) Jonathan Conricus told CBS News on Monday. More than 250 of the dead were Israelis who came under attack at the Supernova music festival near the border with Gaza when militants opened fire on the crowd.
Israeli officials also say Hamas fighters captured more than 100 hostages, including women, children and elderly people, who were apparently taken into Gaza as captives.
At least 11 U.S. citizens are among the dead, the White House says, while an unknown number of Americans remain missing. U.S. officials say Americans may be among those who were taken hostage.
Meanwhile, at least 765 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. At least 140 children there have been killed and 4,000 others have been wounded, it said.
The coordinated, multi-front attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas, came almost 50 years to the day since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and marked a dramatic escalation in the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hostages should be released immediately, UN
Martin Griffiths, the United Nations humanitarian chief, called for hostages in the Israel-Hamas war to be released immediately and said those who are being held must be treated humanely.
“My message to all sides is unequivocal: The laws of war must be upheld,” Griffiths said in a statement Tuesday.
Israel’s Government Press Office said on Sunday that Hamas took more than 100 people hostage after its militants launched a large-scale attack on Israel, which has responded with airstrikes and a “total siege” on Gaza.
Griffiths called the “scale and speed of what’s unfolding” in Gaza and Israel “bone-chilling” and said the entire region is at a tipping point.
“Throughout hostilities, civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected,” he said. “Civilians must be allowed to leave for safer areas.”
“And humanitarian relief and vital services and supplies to Gaza must not be blocked,” Griffiths added.
No safe place in Gaza and no electricity or water
Palestinians across the heavily bombarded Gaza Strip have described their horror as the Israeli military continued to hammer the area in the aftermath of Hamas’ incursion into the Jewish state over the weekend. Gaza City was pummeled by aerial bombardments on Tuesday as Israel Defense Forces continued to carry out the first phase of their retaliation for Saturday’s unprecedented attacks.
Gaza residents described increasingly desperate conditions that ordinary people were facing on the ground as Israel tightened its long-standing blockade of the Palestinian territory. Hamas would hold sole responsibility for the impact of the blockade on civilians, Israeli authorities have said.
“There are no shelters or bunkers or safe routes or safe zones in Gaza. So it’s not like you can sit down and plan with your family on how to leave or a safe place to go to,” local resident Omar Ghraieb told CBS News over the phone.
“We are a family of five people and these unfortunate events unfolded so very fast… We didn’t really have enough time to actually stock up enough on food, medicine and water,” Ghraeib said. “We are having three to four hours of electricity every 24 hours.”
Palestinian journalist Hassan Jaber told CBS News that there is a scarcity in access to bomb shelters or safe terrain to protect civilians from the aerial strikes. “There is no safe place in Gaza,” he said.
Jaber also said that some residents of the city could face starvation within “days.”
“There is no electricity, there is no water,” he said. “This is inhuman to let people die from the lack of food and water.”
CBS
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