JERUSALEM/GAZA (Reuters) – Israel battered Gaza on Sunday after suffering its bloodiest attack in decades, when Hamas fighters rampaged through Israeli towns killing 600 and abducting dozens more, as the spiralling violence threatened a major new Middle East war.
Israeli air strikes hit housing blocks, tunnels, a mosque and homes of Hamas officials in Gaza, killing more than 370 people, including 20 children, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed “mighty vengeance for this black day”.
In a sign the conflict could spread beyond blockaded Gaza, Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia exchanged artillery and rocket fire, while in Alexandria, two Israeli tourists were shot dead along with their Egyptian guide.
In southern Israel, Hamas gunmen were still fighting Israeli security forces 24 hours after a surprise, multi-pronged assault of rocket barrages and bands of gunmen who overran army bases and invaded border towns.
As fighting raged on Sunday, Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement said it had fired “large numbers of artillery shells and guided missiles” at Israeli positions in a contested border areas “in solidarity” with Hamas.
Israel’s army had earlier said it fired artillery on southern Lebanon in response to a shot from the area without identifying the attackers.
“We are embarking on a long and difficult war that was forced on us by a murderous Hamas attack,” Netanyahu said on X, formerly Twitter, early on Sunday.
“At the same time, we have begun the offensive phase, which will continue with neither limitations nor respite until the objectives are achieved. We will restore security to the citizens of Israel and we will win,” he said.
Earlier, the premier warned that “all the places in which Hamas is based, in this city of evil, all the places Hamas is hiding in, acting from — we’ll turn them into rubble”.
Overnight Israel battered the Gaza Strip with air strikes as rockets from the blockaded Palestinians territory rained on Israel. In southern Israel, Hamas fighters were still fighting Israeli security forces 24 hours after the surprise attack.
“We’re going to be attacking Hamas severely and this is going to be a long, long haul,” an Israeli military spokesman told a briefing with reporters.
In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua said the attack had been “in defence of our people”, adding the group’s fighters continued rocket strikes and were still conducting operations behind the lines.
Sunday morning gun still battles raged between Israeli forces and hundreds of Hamas fighters in multiple locations, including at the Sderot police station across the border from Gaza.
Police and Israeli army special forces “neutralised 10 armed terrorists” who were holed up inside the station, a police statement said.
Iran’s president speaks to Hamas, Islamic Jihad leaders
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has spoken with leaders of Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, official media said today.
“Raisi discussed the developments in Palestine in separate phone calls with Ziyad al-Nakhalah, secretary general of the Islamic Jihad Movement, and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the (Hamas) political bureau,” state news agency IRNA reported, without giving further details.
‘Time has come to move forward in line with UN resolutions’
Meanwhile, President Arif Alvi said on Sunday morning that “progress towards peace cannot materialise without condemnation of usurpation and brutalisation of Palestinian rights and people by Israel”.
“Continuous annexation of land, illegal settlements, disproportionate reactions and killings. The result is no hope and no progress towards peace. Time has come to move forward in line with UN resolutions. International community can play a big role today towards world peace,” he said.
Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said that Pakistan was “deeply concerned by the escalating hostility in the Middle East and the loss of innocent lives”.
“We stand in solidarity with Palestinians and call for an immediate end to the violence and oppression by Israeli occupation forces. A viable and sovereign state of Palestine must be established on the basis of pre-1967 borders and UN resolutions,” he said.
Jilani said the international community needed to intervene to “bring an end to the conflict, protect civilians, and work towards a lasting peace in the Middle East”.
