JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel intensified its bombardments of the Gaza Strip on Monday after declaring war and vowing to destroy the “military and governing capabilities” of the enclave's Hamas rulers, as Israeli soldiers fought to dislodge Gaza gunmen fro
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. Palestinian militant groups claimed to be holding over 130 captives from the Israeli side.
“Our task is to make sure that Hamas will no longer have any military capabilities to threaten Israel with this,” said spokesperson Jonathan Conricus in a video tweeted by Israel's military. “And in addition to that, we will make sure that Hamas is no longer able to govern the Gaza Strip.” Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters Hamas was using the town as a staging ground for attacks. There was no immediate word on casualties, and most of the community’s population of tens of thousands likely fled beforehand.
Civilians on both sides were already paying a high price. The Israeli military was evacuating at least five towns close to Gaza, while the U.N. more than 123,000 Gazans were displaced by the fighting. Over the weekend, another airstrike on a home in Rafah killed 19 members of the Abu Outa family, including women and children, when they were huddling on the ground floor in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, survivors said.
The declaration of war was largely symbolic, said Yohanan Plesner, the head of the Israel Democracy Institute, a think tank, but it “demonstrates that the government thinks we are entering a more lengthy, intense and significant period of war.”
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