Israel-Hamas war: What you need to know right now

Israel vowed to escalate its response to an attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas with a ground offensive, while U.S. President Joe Biden pledged support for Israel and issued a warning to anyone seeking to take advantage of the situation.

Hamas militants holding Israeli soldiers and civilians hostage have threatened to execute a captive for each home in Gaza hit without warning, but despite Israel razing sections of Gaza and more airstrikes overnight there was no indication Hamas had carried out its threat.

CONFLICT

* The Israeli military said dozens of its fighter jets struck more than 200 targets overnight in a neighbourhood of Gaza City.

* Gaza’s health ministry said at least 900 people have been killed and 4,600 wounded in the crowded coastal enclave. Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported the weekend death toll had reached 1,200.

* On Saturday, Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip rampaged through parts of southern Israel, in the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israel’s history.

* “Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be. We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground,” said Israeli Defence Minister Yoavv Gallant, speaking to soldiers near the Gaza fence.

* Israel has called up an unprecedented 300,000 reservists, as Israeli airlines added flights to bring reservists back to the country.

* The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israeli strikes had since Saturday destroyed more than 22,600 residential units and 10 health facilities and damaged 48 schools.

* Two members of Hamas’ political office were killed in an air strike in Khan Younis, a Hamas official said. They were the first senior Hamas members killed since Israel began pounding the enclave.

* On Israel’s northern border, a salvo of rockets was fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel, prompting Israeli shelling in return, three security sources said. More shells launched from Syrian territory landed in open areas in Israel, prompting Israel to return fire, the military said, further raising fears that the violence could lead to a wider war.

HUMAN IMPACT

* A 21-year-old Israeli woman said she had “no tears left” after her father, sister, grandmother and cousin went missing on Saturday and video showed her 12-year-old brother being taken by gunmen.

* Gazans like Plestia Alaqad, 22, are running for their lives. After her apartment block was hit, she took refuge in a friend’s home but then got a call it would be targeted too. After a brief stay in a hospital, where she charged her phone, she headed to another home.

* Gazan rescuers pulled the body of a 4-year-old girl and other dead from the rubble of a municipal building where she and many others were sheltering. “They tried to escape death only to find it,” said volunteer Mohammad al Najjar.

* The distraught parents of a Thai seized in Israel sent a plea: “Help the hostages as soon as possible.” His parents recognised their son in a photo shared on social media of hostages sitting with hands seemingly tied behind their backs. “He was going to play soccer with his friend. Then he hung up the phone,” his mother said.

INTERNATIONAL REACTION

* President Joe Biden called the attacks by Hamas “an act of sheer evil” and at least 14 U.S. citizens were killed. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will arrive in Israel on Thursday, in a show of solidarity.

* Egypt is moving to prevent a mass exodus south from the Gaza Strip, as Israeli bombardments halted crossings.

* European Union foreign ministers met to try to resolve divisions over whether to continue aid payments to Palestinians.

* Iran’s top authority Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran was not involved in the Hamas attack, though he “kissed the hands” of those doing damage to Israel.

INSIGHTS/EXPLAINERS

* How a secretive Hamas commander masterminded the attack on Israel. A survivor of seven Israeli assassination attempts, the most recent in 2021, Mohammed Deif rarely speaks and never appears in public so when Hamas’s TV channel announced he was about to speak on Saturday, Palestinians knew something significant was afoot.

* Hamas attack turned an Israeli kibbutz “paradise” into hell

* Hamas waged a campaign of deception to pull off its stunning attack.

* Biden finds himself thrust into a crisis likely to reshape his Middle East policy, and into an uneasy alliance with far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

* Palestinian statehood, Jerusalem and refugees lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

* Biden pledging aid to Israel raised questions about whether Washington can ramp up defense aid to Israel without jeopardizing aid for Ukraine, especially since Congress controls spending and the House is in limbo without a speaker to put legislation to a vote.

MARKETS AND BUSINESS

* Investors are on guard for an oil price spike amid Middle East turmoil.

* Global stocks rose, but violence in Israel made for nervy trading.

* FACTBOX: What are the global firms with a presence in Israel doing after the Hamas attack?

* World Bank chief Ajay Banga said the Gaza conflict is an economic shock ‘we don’t need’.

* The rapid spread of misleading claims and doctored images has put the focus on Elon Musk’s X platform. The EU urged Musk to tackle the spread of disinformation on X after the Hamas attack.

(REUTERS)