More than 1,500 people have been killed since the militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza early Saturday, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare: “We are at war.”
An Israeli embassy spokesman said Monday that the death toll had risen to at least 900 Israelis, most of them civilians. Another 2,500 were reported wounded, IDF international spokesman Lt. Col. (Res.) Jonathan Conricus told CBS News on Monday. More than 250 of the dead were Israelis who were attacked at the Supernova music festival near the Gaza border when militants opened fire on the crowd.
Israeli officials also say Hamas militants captured more than 100 hostages, including women, children and the elderly, who were apparently taken to Gaza as prisoners.
At least 11 US citizens are among the dead, the White House confirmed on Monday, while an unknown number of Americans remain missing.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 687 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel’s retaliatory attacks, including 140 children, and more than 3,700 people have been injured.
The coordinated, multi-front attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas, came almost 50 years to the day since the 1973 Yom Kippur War and marked a dramatic escalation in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.