Israeli soldiers deployed in Sderot, Israel. Photo: AP/PTI
LIVE | Israel-Hamas war: Death toll nears 1,200; Israel to cut off electricity, food, fuel to Gaza
More than 40 hours after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion out of Gaza, Israeli forces were still battling with militants holed up in several locations.
Hamas militants continued to spread terror in civilian areas of southern Israel on Monday (October 9) even as the Israeli military took retaliatory measures to crush their fighters following the Palestinian outfit’s surprise attack on Saturday.
More than a thousand have been killed on both sides. While over 700 people have been killed in Israel— a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades — Palestine’s health officials pegged the number of dead in Gaza at 493.
More than 40 hours after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion out of Gaza, Israeli forces were still battling with militants holed up in several locations.
Israel said it brought in special forces to try to wrest control of four Israeli sites from Hamas fighters, including two kibbutzim that militants entered earlier in their attacks.
Footage released by Israeli police from one area showed forces kneeling in tall grass as they exchanged fire with Hamas militants across an open field.
Meanwhile, Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group claimed to have taken captive more than 130 people from inside Israel and brought them into Gaza, saying they would be traded for the release of thousands of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The captives are known to include soldiers and civilians, including women, children and elderly — mostly Israelis but also some other nationalities.
As per a BBC report, rescuers have found more than 250 bodies at Supernova music festival site, one of the first targets in the recent onslaught by Hamas. Meanwhile, the overall death toll has crossed over 1,000.
"This is our 9/11," an Israel Army spokesperson said, according to reports. "Hamas wanted an annihilation of our state. They went for civilians, grandmothers, and babies," the official was qouted saying.
The Federals' coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict
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Live Updates
- 8 Oct 2023 8:12 PM IST
4 Nepalese students injured, 11 missing in Israel
Four Nepalese students studying in Israel have been injured and 11 are still missing after Hamas militants attacked a farm, Foreign Minister N P Saud said on Sunday.
The minister said that casualties are feared among the missing students studying in the southern part of Israel.
There were 17 Nepalese students in Kibbutz Alumim in southern Israel, under the learn and earn programme. Out of 17, two managed to escape safely and four of them sustained injuries, according to Foreign Ministry sources.
The injured Nepalese students are undergoing treatment in a hospital, the sources added.
There are currently 4,500 Nepalese working as caregivers and 265 Nepalese students currently working in various agricultural firms under the learn and earn scheme.
- 8 Oct 2023 8:05 PM IST
Indian exporters may face higher risk premiums, shipping costs
Indian exporters shipping goods to Israel may face higher insurance premiums and shipping costs due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to experts.
International trade experts said the conflict may reduce the profits of domestic exporters but will not impact trade volumes unless war escalates.
"For merchandise exports of India, the war may lead to higher insurance premiums and shipping costs. India's ECGC may charge higher risk premiums from Indian firms exporting to Israel," think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said on Sunday.
ECGC Ltd (formerly Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Ltd) is wholly owned by the government of India. It was set up in 1957 with the objective of promoting exports from the country by providing credit risk insurance and related services for exports.
- 8 Oct 2023 8:03 PM IST
Tourists under attack?
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN's State of the Union that the US is working to verify reports that “several” Americans were killed or are missing.
In neighboring Egypt, a policeman shot dead two Israeli tourists and an Egyptian at a tourist site in Alexandria, the Interior Ministry said. Egypt made peace with Israel decades ago, but anti-Israel sentiment runs high in the country, especially during bouts of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The flare-up on Israel's northern border also threatened to draw into the battle Hezbollah, a fierce enemy of Israel's which is backed by Iran and estimated to have tens of thousands of rockets at its disposal.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets and shells on Sunday at three Israeli positions in a disputed area along the border and Israel's military fired back using armed drones. Two children were lightly wounded by broken glass on the Lebanese side, according to the nearby Marjayoun Hospital.
- 8 Oct 2023 8:02 PM IST
Country at war, says Netanyahu
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country was at war and would exact a heavy price from its enemies. His Security Cabinet officially declared the country at war in an announcement on Sunday, saying the decision formally authorises “the taking of significant military steps." The implications of the announcement were not immediately clear. Israel has carried out major military campaigns over the past four decades in Lebanon and Gaza that it portrayed as wars, but without a formal declaration.
The high death toll, multiple captives and slow response to the onslaught pointed to a major intelligence failure and undermined the long-held perception that Israel has eyes and ears everywhere in the small, densely populated territory it has controlled for decades. Some 2,000 people have been wounded on each side. An Israeli official said security forces have killed 400 militants and captured dozens more.
Yohanan Plesner, the head of the Israel Democracy Institute, a local think tank, said the decision is largely symbolic, but "demonstrates that the government thinks we are entering a more lengthy, intense and significant period of war.” A major question now was whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties. Netanyahu vowed that Hamas “will pay an unprecedented price.” But, he warned, “This war will take time. It will be difficult.” Civilians paid a staggering cost for the violence on both sides. Several Israeli media outlets, citing rescue service officials, said at least 600 people were killed in Israel, including 44 soldiers, while officials in Gaza said 313 people had died in the territory.
