Israeli officials confirmed early Monday that over 700 Israeli civilians and members of the military had died, and 2,100 were wounded since Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from Gaza early Saturday morning.
The Israel Defense Forces said more than 700 Israelis were dead and a further 2,100 wounded. Israeli media said more than 250 bodies had been recovered from the site of a music festival in southern Israel that was attacked by Hamas militants.
In response to Hamas’s attack, Israel launched a huge bombardment of Gaza. It also hit targets in Lebanon on Sunday after the Iran-backed Hizbollah militant group fired mortars towards Israel.
In a further effort to ratchet up the pressure on Hamas, Israel cut off the supply of electricity, fuel, and goods to Gaza. Israel and Egypt have subjected Gaza to a crippling economic blockade since Hamas took control in 2007.
Officials in Gaza said 413 people had been killed by Israeli strikes on the territory and that 2,300 had been wounded. One official in the enclave said its hospitals were running at full capacity because of the number of casualties they had received since Saturday.
Meanwhile, amid fears of a ground invasion, the Israeli military amassed as many as 100,000 reserve troops near the embattled border in an ongoing war with Hamas in a bid to regain control of the desert near the Gaza Strip.
A spokesman for the Israeli military said his country has gathered 100,000 reserve troops near Gaza for the ongoing war with Hamas.
“We have amassed around 100,000 reserve troops who are currently in southern Israel,” said an Israeli military spokesperson in a video posted to X.
“Our job is to make sure that at the end of this war, Hamas will no longer have any military capability to threaten Israeli civilians,” Jonathan Conricus added.
He said the Israeli military will also make sure that Hamas will not be able to govern the Gaza Strip after the end of the war.
