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Israel’s military said that it was battling armed Hamas fighters in southern towns and defending breaches in its border fence with Gaza more than two days after an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian militant group killed hundreds of Israelis.
Israel said it bombed more than 1,000 targets in Gaza overnight, deployed four military divisions in the south and took steps to secure its northern border with Lebanon, where militant group Hizbollah fired mortars at an Israeli military base in the occupied Golan Heights on Sunday.
“It’s an all-out,” said Lt Col Richard Hecht, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, in a briefing on Monday morning. “Hundreds and hundreds of Hamas warriors came into Israel.”
More than 700 Israeli civilians and troops have been killed since Hamas entered Israel through the high-tech border fence on foot, in vehicles and paragliders in the early hours of Saturday, when some Israeli soldiers had gone home to celebrate the Jewish Simchat Torah holiday.
At least 100 people have been abducted in the deadliest conflict inside Israel since 1948.
After the attack, Israel cut off electricity into Gaza and launched air attacks on the blockaded Palestinian enclave, destroying several high-rise buildings. Health officials in Gaza said on Monday morning that 436 people had been killed, including 91 children, and 2,271 injured.
UN officials said more than 123,000 people had been displaced in Gaza as of Saturday night following Israeli air strikes, some of which hit residential buildings. The world body’s agency for Palestine refugees estimated that more than 73,000 people were sheltering in 64 schools in Gaza.
Hecht said that the military was still focusing on the “first stage” of defending communities near Gaza and holding breach points where Hamas fighters poured into Israel. He said that there were still seven or eight places in Israel’s southern border area with Gaza “where we have still warriors fighting terrorists”.
Hecht added that there was still an active hostage situation inside Kfar Aza, a kibbutz in southern Israel.
Oil prices rose as much as 5.2 per cent on Monday to $89 a barrel on concerns that fallout from the conflict could widen across the region.
“Obviously everyone’s reaction was to buy oil given the heightened political risk,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, adding that there were concerns that Iran’s potential involvement in planning the Hamas attack could lead to stronger US sanctions on Iranian oil exports.
Asked on Monday about whether Iran had provided Hamas support for its lightning attack, Hecht said that the Iranians were likely to have been involved but said “we are not focusing on that right now”.
“We are fighting against Hamas,” he said, adding, “we are making sure that our northern border is secured and ramped up.”
The Bank of Israel on Monday announced a plan to sell up to $30bn in foreign exchange to stabilise volatility in the shekel exchange rate and provide liquidity “for the continued proper functioning of the markets”.
Additional reporting by Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv
