People stand outside a mosque destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Oct.8, 2023. The Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and rampaged through nearby Israeli communities, taking captives, while Israel’s retaliation strikes levelled buildings in Gaza.
| Photo Credit: Yousef Masoud

Several Israeli media outlets reported on Sunday that the death toll from Hamas’ wide-ranging incursion into Israel has risen to 600.

Israeli soldiers battled Hamas fighters in the streets of southern Israel on Sunday and launched retaliation strikes that levelled buildings in Gaza, while in northern Israel a brief exchange of strikes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group raised fears of a broader conflict.

There was still some fighting underway more than 24 hours after an unprecedented surprise attack from Gaza, in which Hamas militants, backed by a volley of thousands of rockets, broke through Israel’s security barrier and rampaged through nearby communities. They took captives back into the coastal Gaza enclave, including women, children and elderly, who they will likely try to trade for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

At least 600 people have reportedly been killed in Israel — including 44 soldiers — a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades. Officials in Gaza said 313 people had died in the territory. An Israeli official said security forces have killed 400 militants and captured dozens more. Civilians paid a staggering cost for the violence on both sides.

Chart 1 | The chart shows the number of Palestinians and Israelis who were killed since 2008 in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel in the context of the occupation and conflict. The latest attack is marked separately.

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Chart 1 shows that this is by far the deadliest attack on Israel by a wide margin. It depicts that the number of Palestinians who died in the conflict far outnumber the deaths on the other side every year.

The Israeli military said it had deployed tens of thousands of soldiers around Gaza and was starting to evacuate all Israelis living around the frontier of the territory. The Gaza Strip is an impoverished Palestinian enclave that has been under Israeli blockade since 2007. One of the most densely populated places on the planet, Gaza is home to over two million Palestinians living on a 362sq. km strip of land. It is ruled by Hamas, now at war with Israel for the fifth time in 15 years.

Volatile Gaza

Chart 2 | The chart shows the number of Palestinians and Israelis killed since 2008.

Gaza recorded the most deaths in the region. From Gaza, on Saturday, Hamas militants streamed into Israeli urban areas, including Ashkelon, Sderot, and Ofakim, which is about 22 km away from the city. The attack marked an unprecedented infiltration into Israel by an unknown number of Hamas gunmen crossing from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli media reported gun battles between bands of Palestinian fighters and security forces in towns in southern Israel. Israel’s police chief said there were “21 active scenes’’ in southern Israel.

Map 3 | The map shows the flashpoints of the ongoing conflict.

The UN agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, said over 20,000 people were sheltering in 44 of its schools around Gaza by Saturday evening. “The number (of displaced) is rapidly increasing, “ said Inas Hamdan, acting public information officer in Gaza. Over the past year, Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around al-Aqsa mosque, a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.

Chart 4 | The chart shows the demolition of Palestinian-owned structures and the resulting displacement of people from their homes across the West Bank since 2009.

Source: United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said part of the motivation for Hamas’ latest attack on Israel may have been disrupting a potential normalizing of Israel-Saudi Arabia ties and said Washington will announce new assistance for Israel on October 8.

Hamas fighters rampaged through Israeli towns as the country suffered its bloodiest day in decades on Saturday and battered Palestinians with air strikes in Gaza on Sunday, with hundreds reportedly killed on both sides. The spiraling violence threatens a major new Middle East war.

The attack by Hamas launched at dawn on Saturday represented the biggest and deadliest incursion into Israel since Egypt and Syria launched a sudden assault in an effort to reclaim lost territory in the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise that part of the motivation may have been to disrupt efforts to bring Saudi Arabia and Israel together, along with other countries that may be interested in normalizing relations with Israel,” Mr. Blinken told CNN in an interview on Sunday.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month he believed his country was on the cusp of peace with Saudi Arabia, predicting it could reshape the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s two holiest shrines, has long insisted on the Palestinians’ right to statehood as a condition of recognizing Israel – something that many members of Netanyahu’s nationalist religious coalition have long resisted.

The United said on Sunday that Saudi-Israel normalization efforts should continue despite the latest attack.

“We think it would be in both countries’ interests to continue to pursue this possibility,” U.S. Deputy National Security adviser Jon Finer told Fox News Sunday.

Fighting continues in Gaza

Mr. Blinken added the United States has also taken note of reports of several Americans killed and kidnapped in Israel and Washington is looking to verify the details and figures.

“We have reports that several Americans were killed. We’re working overtime to verify that,” he said.

The secretary of state said details of new U.S. assistance for Israel will be made public later, as he labeled the attack on Israel as a “terrorist attack by a terrorist organization.”

“We are looking at specific additional requests that the Israelis have made. I think you’re likely to hear more about that later today,” Mr. Blinken told CNN.

He added there was relative calm on Sunday in most of Israel but intense fighting in Gaza, an Israeli-blockaded Palestinian enclave which has witnessed weeks of protests by youth groups due to long-time grievances related to the Israeli military occupation, the Palestinian national cause and prolonged economic strife.

He added that there was not yet any evidence seen by the United States of Iran being behind the latest attack in Israel but he noted the long-standing ties between Iran and Hamas, which governs Gaza.