Israel said it had largely secured the Gaza border and was evacuating nearby towns where the bodies of 1,500 Hamas militants had been recovered by Tuesday after days of gruelling battles outside the Palestinian enclave.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Israel's military campaign following Saturday's surprise onslaught was only the start of a sustained war to destroy Hamas and "change the Middle East".
Fears of a regional conflagration have surged amid expectations of a looming Israeli ground incursion into Gaza, the crowded enclave from where Hamas launched its land, air and sea attack on the Jewish Sabbath.
The death toll in Israel has surged above 900 from the worst attack in the country's 75-year history, while Gaza officials have reported 687 people killed so far.
Hamas gunmen massacred more than 100 people in the kibbutz of Beeri alone, said Moti Bukjin, a volunteer with the charity Zaka that recovers bodies in accordance with Jewish law.
Pretty sure everyone killed by IDF will be counted as Hamas militant as usual, even the kid with a slingshot or the pregnant women running away in fear.
Whatch journalists actually visiting Gaza to get a full picture of the situation instead of repeating western media propaganda. The situation in palestine is disgusting. Gaza Fights for freedom
I have a dual citizenship friend that used to work as a journalist in the strip.
He still has ribcage damage from getting drop kicked by an Israeli soldier. A fellow Jewish citizen of Israel.
Now, imagine how Palestinian's are being treated.
Two days ago thirty Palestinian children were reported dead from Israeli bombings. Last night another Israeli attack hit the Palestinian concentration camp and killed 300 more people, news only listed them as civilians and didn't count the number of children killed.
Now, I have nothing but sympathy for the Israeli citizens caught up in this. But the authoritarian right wing regime in Israel is co-responsible. Occupying a territory for 70 years, putting the people living there in concentration camps, and abusing them in perpetuity; creates a situation for terrorists and extremists to proliferate.
And retaliatory bombings of civilian families will create more of the same.
The only logical conclusion of Israel's actions in modern history is that their goal is to radicalize Palestinians, so the resulting terrorism can be used to justify the continued genocide and annexation until there is no Palestine.
I hope everyone feels the same when they see Israel vaporizing 10-story buildings in dense urban districts. How many babies turned to paste in that rubble? Yet somehow Israel has actually released videos like this with pride to show the strength of their wrath.
There's been plenty of references in the tabloid media today of babies decapitated or otherwise mutilated by Hamas in the attack on Kfar Aza
I'm holding out for a more reputable source like reuters to explicitly say it though.
I have personally seen convincing videos/pictures of Hamas (targeting/having targeted) civilian cars (Which as far as your average Hamas militant is concerned could contain children), The elderly at bus stations, Young women. So extending that list of atrocities to include baby murder doesn't seem that far fetched
Oh I don’t doubt it. But that’s the thing with Hamas: they do enough bad stuff that people will believe anything of them. So they can be awful and still also the subject of fog of war lies at the same time.
I’m concerned with the hysteria I see around them. They behead babies! They rape women on top of piles of dead bodies! Because that hysteria is designed to ready the world to excuse absolutely anything Israel might do next.
And let’s face it: Israel kills a lot of kids too. And they have a hell of a lot more power to kill kids than Hamas.
It sounds like this was from retaking border towns outside Gaza. It's going to get a whole lot harder to pick out the actual militants when Israeli ground forces start moving into Gaza. Those apartment block airstrikes are a pretty bad sign of what's to come.