JERUSALEM. On Tuesday, Israel launched a relentless bombardment of downtown Gaza City while simultaneously escalating the mobilization of its reservists, vowing to deliver punishing retaliation against the Hamas militant group. This has left the residents of the besieged Palestinian territory with limited options.
Just four days after militants infiltrated Israel, sparking gunfights on its streets for the first time in decades, Israel’s military announced on Tuesday morning that it had regained effective control over its southern regions and the border.
The ongoing conflict has already claimed a devastating toll on both sides, with at least 1,600 lives lost, and possibly many more. Israel has also accused Hamas and other Gaza militant groups of holding over 150 soldiers and civilians hostage.
The situation is poised to escalate further as Israel expanded its mobilization of reservists to 360,000 on Tuesday, according to local media reports. One critical question is whether Israel will launch a ground offensive into Gaza, a densely populated strip of land wedged between Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean, which has been under Hamas rule since 2007.
While United Nations agencies have called for a humanitarian corridor to deliver medical supplies, the Israeli military reported targeting hundreds of locations overnight in Gaza City’s upscale Rimal neighborhood. Rimal is home to government ministries, universities, media organizations, and aid agencies’ offices under the Hamas-run government.
After hours of relentless attacks, residents emerged at daybreak to find buildings torn apart by airstrikes, others reduced to rubble, flattened cars, and burnt-out trees on residential streets that resembled moonscapes.
The devastation in Rimal suggests a new Israeli strategy of warning civilians to evacuate certain areas before striking them with unprecedented intensity. If these airstrikes persist, Gaza’s civilians will have fewer places to seek shelter as more neighborhoods become uninhabitable.
Israel’s chief military spokesperson emphasized the unprecedented nature of the current campaign, stating, “Hamas terrorists won’t have a place to run to in Gaza. We will reach them wherever they are,” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
In a briefing Tuesday, army spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht suggested that Palestinians should attempt to leave through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. However, Hamas later claimed that Israeli strikes had rendered it unusable.
With the border to Israel sealed, Rafah remains the only way out of Gaza, and the situation threatens to worsen as Israel pounds the territory with airstrikes and threatens a complete siege, cutting off fuel, food, and electricity.
The intensifying bombardments and threats to topple Hamas raise questions about the group’s strategy and objectives. Hamas leaders have not publicly commented on whether they anticipated Israel’s ferocious retaliation or the potential risk of losing much of the group’s government infrastructure when they launched the weekend attack.
In response to Israeli aerial attacks, Hamas’ armed wing spokesperson, Abu Obeida, declared on Monday night that the group would kill one Israeli civilian captive for every civilian targeted by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza without prior warning.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen warned Hamas against harming any hostages, stating, “This war crime will not be forgiven.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed a former military commander to manage the hostage and missing persons crisis.
The United Nations reported on Tuesday that over 187,000 people had fled their homes in Gaza, marking the most significant displacement since a 2014 Israeli air and ground offensive that uprooted approximately 400,000 Palestinians.
UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, is providing shelter to over 137,000 people in schools across Gaza, with families taking in an additional 41,000 displaced individuals.
The Israeli military reported more than 900 casualties on its side, while Gaza authorities stated that 765 people had been killed there. Israel alleges that hundreds of Hamas fighters are among the casualties. The bodies of around 1,500 Hamas militants have been discovered on Israeli territory, though it remains unclear if these figures overlap with previous Palestinian authority reports.
The surprise weekend attack by Hamas resulted in a death toll not seen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria, and those deaths occurred over a more extended period. The weekend attack was also notable for the high number of civilian casualties, intensifying calls within Israel to crush Hamas at any cost rather than continuing to contain it in Gaza. Israel’s government, currently the most hard-right in its history, rejects Palestinian statehood.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza on Monday, which drew warnings of “utter disaster” for Gazans from Jan Egeland, the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council aid group. Egeland emphasized that collective punishment violates international law and could constitute war crimes if it leads to the deaths of wounded children in hospitals due to a lack of energy, electricity, and supplies.
Hamas has declared readiness for a protracted conflict against Israel. Desperation has grown among Palestinians, who perceive little hope under unrelenting Israeli control, escalating settler activities in the West Bank, the blockade in Gaza, and what they perceive as global indifference.
Si Venus L Peñaflor ay naging editor-in-chief ng Newsworld, isang lokal na pahayagan ng Laguna. Publisher din siya ng Daystar Gazette at Tutubi News Magazine. Siya ay isa ring pintor at doll face designer ng Ninay Dolls, ang unang Manikang Pilipino. Kasali siya sa DesignCrowd sa rank na #305 sa 640,000 graphic designers sa buong daigdig. Kasama din siya sa unang Local TV Broadcast sa Laguna na Beyond Manila. Aktibong kasapi siya ng San Pablo Jaycees Senate bilang isang JCI Senator.
