Israeli defense minister orders ‘complete siege’ of Gaza, as conflict with Hamas enters third day
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Israel’s defense minister ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza on Monday, as the military said it had retaken control of Israeli communities that were stormed by Hamas gunmen over the weekend.
Yoav Gallant said on camera that Israel would halt the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel to the Palestinian enclave. “I have given an order – Gaza will be under complete siege,” the minister said. “We are fighting barbarians and will respond accordingly.”
Israeli forces are now conducting “wide-scale strikes” on several “strategic” centers in Gaza belonging to Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement Monday.
Earlier, Israeli forces fought door-to-door to regain control of all communities around Gaza. There is no ongoing fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants inside Israel, the Israeli military said.
More than 48 hours have passed since the Islamist militant group launched a surprise assault, launching thousands of rockets and sending armed fighters into Israel.
Israel on Sunday formally declared war on Hamas in response to the unprecedented attack, which has so far killed more than 700 people in Israel. At least 2,506 people have been injured, the Israeli Health Ministry said.
Israeli jets continued to bombard Gaza with deadly airstrikes Monday as the war entered its third day.
The Israeli strikes have killed at least 560 people, including dozens of children, and left 2,900 injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Nine United States citizens have died in the conflict, a US National Security Council spokesperson said.
Pleas for hostages’ safe return
Earlier Monday, as Israeli forces battled to expel the last assailants, Hamas launched a fresh barrage of rocket attacks.
Hamas said it fired 120 rockets toward the coastal cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon in response to Israeli airstrikes. A CNN team on the ground saw dust billowing over the sky, as rockets launched from Gaza were intercepted by the Israeli air defense system in Ashdod.
Hamas militants claimed late Sunday to be holding more than 100 hostages in Gaza, including high-ranking Israeli army officers, according to Mousa Abu Marzouk, chief deputy of Hamas’ political bureau.
Videos on social media showed militants capturing multiple civilians, including children, as Israeli families across the nation made anxious pleas for the safe return of their loved ones.
In addition to Israeli captives, other nationalities are also believed to have been taken hostage, including American, Mexican, Brazilian and Thai nationals – further complicating Israel’s response to the Hamas attack. At least nine citizens from Peru, Paraguay, Brazil and Mexico are missing, according to their respective authorities.
![Smoke rises above buildings during an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City on October 9.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231008235453-01-gaza-israel-100923-gaza-city.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill)
![Palestinians carry a dead body after Israeli airstrikes hit al-Susi Mosque in Gaza on Monday.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231009121506-04-israel-hamas-update-100923.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill)
‘Massacre’ in Gaza
For now, airstrikes have been Israel’s primary retaliation measure within Gaza itself, with jets repeatedly pounding the heavily populated 140 square mile coastal strip, turning multiple buildings to rubble.
The IDF says it has been hitting Hamas, destroying around 800 targets and killing “hundreds” of fighters, wounding thousands and capturing scores of others, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Sunday.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said, and access to medical care has been complicated by Israel cutting power to the territory, threatening the “lives of hundreds” of those injured, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said.
Palestinian families living inside Gaza told CNN they had lost homes and loved ones as scenes emerged of entire buildings turned to rubble amid the Israeli response.
Israeli airstrikes targeted the Shati and Jabalia refugee camps in Gaza on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry said, describing the assault as a “massacre against the entire neighborhood.”
The ministry said bodies were still being recovered after the strikes killed a “large number” of people. No death toll has been provided.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila urged the international community to stop “the aggression” against medical facilities and teams in Gaza.
“The occupation deliberately targets hospitals and ambulances, killing and injuring medical personnel,” she said.
At least 13 family members, including four toddlers, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Sunday, according to journalist Hassan Eslayeh and a family relative.
![Palestinians search for casualties under the rubble of a house destroyed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231008065337-07-gaza-israel-1008.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill)
Sounds of battle
While it remains unclear what the full scale of the Israeli response will be, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday predicted a “long and difficult war” and vowed “mighty vengeance” on Hamas.
IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said Sunday that the priority for the coming hours and days was to “control the entire enclave and kill all the terrorists in our territory.”
Israel’s declaration of war set the stage for a major military operation in Gaza, and tanks and personnel carriers could be seen on the move near the Israel-Gaza border on Sunday.
Thousands of Israeli reservists have been called up and the IDF announced that several communities close to the Gaza security fence are being evacuated.
An Israeli military official and a United States defense official said Israel is requesting precision guided bombs and additional interceptors for its Iron Dome missile system from the US, including Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs – a kit that turns an unguided “dumb” bomb into a precision “smart” weapon.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US would provide security assistance to Israel imminently. The US said it was also sending a Navy carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including guided missile destroyers and guided missile cruisers.
Horror on the ground
Many Israelis have spent much of the past two days in bomb shelters and saferooms.
Throughout the bloody weekend, Hamas rockets made direct hits on multiple locations inside the country, including Tel Aviv, while armed terror groups entered Israel and infiltrated military bases, towns and farms, shooting at civilians and taking hostages.
The assault has left Israel reeling and impacted families far beyond its borders. Twelve Thai citizens, 10 Nepalis, two Ukrainians, one French and one British citizen are among those killed in Israel.
Photos released by the Israeli foreign ministry showed dozens of bodies in the aftermath of Hamas gunmen’s attack on a music festival near the Israel-Gaza border, which emergency responders said left at least 260 dead.
![Israelis inspect the rubble of a building a day after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231008065341-06-gaza-israel-1008.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill)
The father of an Israeli woman who was reportedly taken hostage at the festival told CNN that he “didn’t want to believe it” when he saw his daughter being hoisted onto the back of a motorcycle by Hamas assailants in a video circulating on social media.
“One couldn’t describe it with words. It’s impossible… It was a very difficult moment,” Yakov Argamani said, describing the moment he saw the video of his 25-year-old daughter Noa for the first time.
Videos obtained and geolocated by CNN show at least four civilians in the kibbutz of Be’eri were killed while in the custody of Hamas, just feet from where armed militants had been escorting them.
The IDF said early Monday that Be’eri was “very badly hit.”
![Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from Ashkelon in southern Israel October 7, 2023](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231007162823-53-gaza-israel-1007.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill)
Regional concerns of escalation
Questions remain over how the Israeli military and intelligence apparatus appeared to be caught off guard in one of the country’s worst security failures.
Fighting between the two sides has surged in the past two years. The violence has been driven by frequent Israeli military raids in Palestinian towns and cities, which Israel has said are a necessary response to a rising number of attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis.
Concerns the conflict could spill out into the region were raised Sunday when Lebanese group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for targeting three Israeli sites in an area known as Shebaa Farms, using missiles and artillery. The area is considered by Lebanon as Israeli-occupied.
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On Sunday, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting but no action was taken afterward. The Deputy US Ambassador to the UN said “not all” the member nations had condemned Hamas’ attacks, but did not specify which. All 15 members need to vote unanimously for the UNSC to release a statement.
European Union foreign ministers are expected to meet on Tuesday to address the situation in Israel, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Monday.
Source: Edition.cnn.com