Fears of ground invasion are growing as Israel is escalating measures against the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to a “total blockade” including a ban on the supply of food and fuel to war-ravaged Palestinians in the resource-strapped Arab country.
According to Israel’s foreign ministry, at least 1,000 Israelis, including civilian and security forces, have been killed by Hamas, while Palestine’s health ministry has put the tally of martyred Gazans at 687, injuring 3,727.
Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera reported that Hamas’s Qassam Brigades had said they would start executing Israeli civilian hostages and broadcast the execution live if Israel dropped another bomb on civilian residential areas without any prior warning.
“Any targeting of innocent civilians without warning will be met regretfully by executing one of the captives in our custody, and we will be forced to broadcast this execution,” said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ Qassam Brigades told Al-Jazeera.
“We regret this decision but we hold the Zionist enemy [Israel] and their leadership the responsibility for this,” he said while talking to Al-Jazeera Arabic.
“The price the Gaza Strip will pay will be a very heavy one that will change reality for generations,” said Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in Ofakim, one of the towns where calm was restored after a battle with Hamas fighters who stormed through it, killing civilians and leaving with hostages.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s options for hitting Hamas, which controls the narrow Gaza Strip that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians, could be curtailed by concern for the many Israelis seized in the raid.
A full-scale invasion of Gaza, which Netanyahu has tried to avoid in his long years in power, could endanger the lives of the hostages.
In a statement, the Israeli Air Force said it dropped some 2,000 munitions and more than 1,000-ton bombs on Gaza aimed at over 8,000 targets in Gaza in the last 20 hours.
Among the targets were three rocket launchers directed at Israel, a mosque where militants were operating and 21 high-rise buildings that served militant activity.
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