The Israeli government has formally declared war on Sunday and gave the go ahead for “significant military operations ” to retaliate against Hamas for its surprise attack on Israel. Israeli military are still emeshed in a long drawn battle on several fronts inside Israel with Hamas fighters . Israel intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Sunday with attacks on several targets including densely populated areas. The death toll and the wounded on both sides continue to increase.
More than 24 hours after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion into Israel, at least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel — a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades — and more than 400 have been killed in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes pound the territory.
The declaration of war portend greater fighting ahead, and a major question was whether Israel would launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties. Analyst are wondering if Israel will want to take over the Gaza Strip again after its unilateral withdrawal in 2007. Meanwhile, in northern Israel, a brief exchange of strikes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group may mean that the fighting could excalate into a wider regional war in the coming days.
Israel has hit more than 800 targets in Gaza so far, with airstrikes bringing towns to rubble.
The attack by Hamas launched at dawn on Saturday represented the biggest and deadliest incursion into Israel since Egypt and Syria launched a sudden assault in an effort to reclaim lost territory 50 years ago.
An analyst captured the feeling of an average Palestinian when he said ” For years we’ve been paying the price. Palestinians are dying every year. The main difference today is that both Palestinians and Israelis are dying. We don’t want anybody to die. I do not want any Palestinian or Israeli to die. But the road to end this situation, to end any form of violence, is to end occupation.”
