Jerusalem and Gaza CNN –
Israel’s defense minister ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip on Monday after 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 stop supplying the Palestinian enclave with electricity, food, water and fuel. “I gave an order – Gaza will be completely besieged,” the minister said. “We are fighting barbarians and will respond accordingly.”
Israeli forces are currently carrying out “large-scale attacks” on several Hamas “strategic” centers in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Monday.
Previously, Israeli forces fought door-to-door to regain control of all communities surrounding Gaza. According to the Israeli military, there is no ongoing fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters inside Israel.
More than 48 hours have passed since the Islamist militant group launched a surprise attack, firing thousands of rockets and sending armed fighters into Israel.
Israel officially declared war on Hamas on Sunday in response to the unprecedented attack that has killed more than 700 people in Israel so far. At least 2,506 people were injured, the Israeli Ministry of Health said.
Israeli warplanes continued to pound Gaza with deadly airstrikes on Monday as the war entered its third day.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 560 people, including dozens of children, were killed and 2,900 injured in the Israeli strikes.
Nine US citizens were killed in the conflict, said a spokesman for the US National Security Council.
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An injured Palestinian child is pictured following Israeli airstrikes on the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza on Monday, October 9.
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A plume of smoke rises into the sky over Gaza City during an Israeli airstrike on October 9th.
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Israelis view a damaged residential building in Ashkelon, Israel, after it was hit by a rocket fired from Gaza on October 9.
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An Israeli soldier prays next to a military vehicle at a base near the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel on October 9.
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Palestinians assess damage from Israeli airstrikes in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on October 9.
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Tali Touito reacts as she describes how Hamas gunmen attacked and took over the police station on her street in Sderot, Israel, on Sunday, October 8.
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Fire and smoke rise in Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike on October 8th.
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A relative of an Israeli man missing since the attacks is overcome with emotion during a news conference on Sunday in Ramat Gan, Israel.
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Palestinians inspect a mosque destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday.
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Israelis inspect the rubble of a building in Tel Aviv on Sunday, a day after it was hit by a rocket fired from Gaza.
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An Israeli soldier prays in front of a tank on the outskirts of the northern town of Kiryat Shmona on Sunday.
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Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepts rockets fired from Gaza on Sunday.
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Palestinians search the rubble of a house in Khan Younis, Gaza, destroyed by Israeli airstrikes on Sunday.
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Palestinian citizens survey damage to their homes caused by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Sunday.
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Rockets fired from Gaza were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system on Sunday.
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Palestinian children look to the sky as they hear airstrikes on a United Nations-run school in Gaza, Saturday, October 7.
Tamir Kalifa/The New York Times/Redux
Shortly after rocket sirens sounded in Ashkelon, Israel, on Saturday, a woman runs to her family’s reinforced concrete shelter.
Tamir Kalifa/The New York Times/Redux
From the window of his family’s apartment, a man looks at the damage caused by a rocket that hit a parking lot in Ashkelon on Saturday.
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Palestinians gather around an Israeli army vehicle that Palestinian militants drove from Israel to Gaza on Saturday.
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Palestinians are breaking into the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border after gunmen infiltrated parts of southern Israel on Saturday.
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Police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a rocket-hit site in Ashkelon on Saturday.
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Israeli police take cover in Ashkelon as sirens blare as rockets are fired from Gaza into Israel on Saturday.
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Israeli airstrikes cause smoke to rise over Gaza on Saturday.
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An Israeli woman reacts to the body of her relative who was killed in the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Saturday.
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Children are seen in a damaged house in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes on Saturday.
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Vehicles burn in Ashkelon as rockets are fired from Gaza on Saturday.
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A man in Ashkelon runs after rockets were fired from Gaza on Saturday.
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Israelis donate blood in Jerusalem on Saturday.
Samar Abu Elouf/The New York Times/Redux
Palestinians inspect a destroyed building as emergency workers try to contain fires after Israeli fighter jets bombed Gaza on Saturday.
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Outside a Gaza hospital, men sit next to the covered body of a Palestinian militant killed in Saturday’s clashes.
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Relatives of the Palestinians killed on Saturday mourn in the morgue of a hospital in Gaza.
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An Israeli soldier stands next to the bodies of Israelis killed by Palestinian militants in Sderot on Saturday.
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A woman stands in a room damaged by rockets in Ashkelon on Saturday.
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A building in Tel Aviv burns on Saturday after rocket attacks from Gaza.
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Smoke rises as clashes between Palestinian groups and Israeli forces continue on the streets of Beit Hanun in Gaza on Saturday.
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People take shelter in a bomb shelter in Rishon Lezion, Israel, as rockets are fired from Gaza on Saturday.
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Rockets will be fired at Israel from Gaza on Saturday.
As Israeli forces struggled to drive out the last attackers early Monday, Hamas launched a new spate of rocket attacks.
Hamas said it fired 120 rockets at the coastal cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon in response to Israeli airstrikes. A CNN team on the scene saw dust rising in the sky as rockets fired from Gaza were intercepted by Israel’s air defense system in Ashdod.
Hamas militants claimed late Sunday that they were holding more than 100 hostages in Gaza, including senior Israeli army officers, according to Mousa Abu Marzouk, chief deputy of Hamas’ political bureau.
Videos on social media showed militants capturing several civilians, including children, as Israeli families across the country worriedly pleaded for the safe return of their loved ones.
In addition to Israeli prisoners, other nationalities are believed to have been taken hostage, including American, Mexican, Brazilian and Thai nationals – further complicating Israel’s response to the Hamas attack. According to the respective authorities, at least nine citizens from Peru, Paraguay, Brazil and Mexico are missing.
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Smoke rises from buildings during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 9.
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Palestinians carry a body after Israeli airstrikes hit the al-Susi Mosque in Gaza on Monday.
Initially there were air strikes Israel’s main retaliation in the Gaza Strip itself: jets repeatedly bombed the densely populated 140-square-mile coastal strip, reducing several buildings to rubble.
The IDF said it attacked Hamas, destroying around 800 targets and killing “hundreds” of fighters, wounding thousands and capturing dozens more, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Sunday.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Gaza, the United Nations Palestine Relief Agency said. Access to medical care has been made difficult by Israel’s power cut, putting “hundreds of lives” at risk. of the injured, said the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Palestinian families living in the Gaza Strip told CNN they lost their homes and loved ones as entire buildings were reduced to rubble by the Israeli response.
Israeli air strikes targeted Gaza’s Shati and Jabalia refugee camps on Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, calling the attack a “massacre against the entire neighborhood.”
The ministry said bodies were continuing to be recovered after a “large number” of people were killed in the attacks. No death toll was given.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila called on the international community to “stop the aggression” against medical facilities and teams in Gaza.
“The occupation specifically targets hospitals and ambulances, killing and injuring medical personnel,” she said.
At least 13 family members, including four small children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to journalist Hassan Eslayeh and a family member.
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Palestinians search for injured people under the rubble of a house destroyed in Israeli attacks in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
While it is still unclear what the scale of Israel’s response will be, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday predicted a “long and difficult war” and vowed “mighty revenge” against Hamas.
IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said Sunday that the priority for the coming hours and days was to “control the entire enclave and kill all terrorists in our territory.”
Israel’s declaration of war set the stage for a major military operation in Gaza, and tanks and personnel carriers were moving near the Israel-Gaza border on Sunday.
Thousands of Israeli reservists were called up and the IDF announced that several communities near the Gaza security fence were being evacuated.
An Israeli military official and a U.S. defense official said Israel is requesting precision-guided bombs and additional interceptors from the U.S. for its Iron Dome missile system, including Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs – a kit that turns an unguided “dumb” bomb into a “dumb.” “ Bomb turns into a precise “smart” weapon.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US would soon provide security assistance to Israel. The US said it would also deploy a strike group of naval carriers to the eastern Mediterranean, including guided-missile destroyers and guided-missile cruisers.
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Many Israelis have spent much of the last two days in bomb shelters and security rooms.
During the bloody weekend, Hamas rockets directly struck several locations in the country, including Tel Aviv, while armed terrorist groups entered Israel and infiltrated military bases, towns and farms, shooting at civilians and taking hostages.
The attack has left Israel reeling and affected families far outside its borders. Among those killed in Israel are 12 Thai citizens, 10 Nepalese, two Ukrainians, one French and one British citizen.
Photos released by Israel’s Foreign Ministry showed dozens of bodies after Hamas gunmen attacked a music festival near the Israel-Gaza border, killing at least 260 people, officials said.
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Israelis inspect the rubble of a building in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, a day after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip.
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 picked up by Hamas attackers in a video circulating on social media the back of a motorcycle was lifted.
“You can’t describe it with words. It’s impossible… It was a very difficult moment,” said Yakov Argamani, 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 that at least four civilians were killed on Kibbutz Be’eri while in Hamas custody, just meters from where armed militants escorted them.
The IDF said early Monday that Be’eri had been “hit very badly.”
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Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepts rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, seen from Ashkelon, southern Israel, October 7, 2023
The question remains as to how the Israeli military and intelligence apparatus appeared to be caught off guard by one of the country’s worst security failures.
Fighting between the two sides has increased over the past two years. The violence has been driven by frequent Israeli military attacks in Palestinian cities, which Israel says are a necessary response to the increasing number of attacks on Israelis by Palestinian militants.
Fears that the conflict could spill over into the region were raised on Sunday when the Lebanese group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for attacking three Israeli sites in an area called Shebaa Farms with rockets and artillery. The area is considered by Lebanon to be occupied by Israel.
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday, but no action was taken afterwards. The U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations said “not all” member states condemned Hamas’ attacks, but did not name which ones. All 15 members must vote unanimously for the UN Security Council to release a statement.
European Union foreign ministers are expected to meet on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Israel, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.