<\/p>\n
A day after Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise attack<\/a> on Israel with a barrage of rockets and a large-scale ground assault, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Palestinians in Gaza to \u201cleave now\u201d as the death toll on both sides neared 1,000.<\/p>\n The conflict\u2019s worst escalation in decades has claimed more than 600 lives, including that of a key commander, on the Israeli side, the government press office said, while Gaza officials reported at least 370 deaths, with thousands more wounded on each side.<\/p>\n Thousands of Israeli forces were deployed to battle holdout Hamas fighters in the south and the airforce again pounded targets in the Gaza Strip as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a \u201clong and difficult\u201d war ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are embarking on a long and difficult war that was forced on us by a murderous Hamas attack,\u201d Netanyahu said on X, formerly Twitter, early on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cI say to the residents of Gaza: Leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere,\u201d he said in another post on X.<\/p>\n Gun battles raged in towns and on highways as the Israeli army sought to secure desert regions near the coastal enclave, rescue Israeli hostages and evacuate all areas near Gaza within 24 hours.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll reach each and every community until we kill every terrorist in Israel,\u201d vowed military spokesman Daniel Hagari, a day after hundreds of Hamas fighters launched their shock offensive and surged into Israel using vehicles, boats and even motorised paragliders.<\/p>\n As fighting raged on Sunday, Lebanon\u2019s powerful Hezbollah movement said it had fired \u201clarge numbers of artillery shells and guided missiles\u201d at Israeli positions in a contested border areas \u201cin solidarity\u201d with Hamas, while in Alexandria, two Israeli tourists were shot dead along with their Egyptian guide.<\/p>\n Overnight Israel attacked 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.<\/p>\n Israeli air strikes hit housing blocks, tunnels, a mosque and homes of Hamas officials in Gaza.<\/p>\n Hamas has labelled its attack \u201cOperation Al-Aqsa Flood\u201d and called on \u201cresistance fighters in the West Bank\u201d and \u201cArab and Islamic nations\u201d to join the battle.<\/p>\n Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has predicted \u201cvictory\u201d and vowed to press ahead with \u201cthe battle to liberate our land and our prisoners languishing in occupation prisons\u201d.<\/p>\n In a statement on X, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that an Israeli commander was among dozens of soldiers killed in fighting.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Commander of the Nahal Brigade, COL Jonathan Steinberg was killed today during a confrontation with a terrorist,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The United States will send multiple military ships and aircraft closer to Israel as a show of support, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, with Washington believing Hamas\u2019 latest attack may have been motivated to disrupt a potential normalising of Israel-Saudi Arabia ties<\/a>.<\/p>\n Austin also added that the United States will provide munitions to Israel, and that its security assistance will begin moving on Sunday. The Pentagon will be adding fighter jets to the region as well, he said.<\/p>\n US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today that additional assistance for the Israeli Defense Forces was on its way to Israel and more would follow in the coming days, the White House said after their call.<\/p>\n Austin said he ordered moving a carrier strike group closer to Israel, which includes the Ford carrier and ships that support it.<\/p>\n \u201cI have directed the movement of the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean,\u201d he said in his statement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t 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,\u201d US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN<\/em> earlier on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think it would be in both countries\u2019 interests to continue to pursue this possibility,\u201d US Deputy National Security adviser Jon Finer told Fox News<\/em> Sunday.<\/p>\n Blinken added that 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have reports that several Americans were killed. We\u2019re working overtime to verify that,\u201d Blinken said.<\/p>\n Blinken labeled the attack on Israel as a \u201cterrorist attack by a terrorist organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has called for the creation of humanitarian corridors to bring food into Gaza as Israeli air strikes pounded the Palestinian enclave following deadly Hamas attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the conflict intensifies, civilians, including vulnerable children and families, face mounting challenges in accessing essential food supplies,\u201d the Rome-based WFP said.<\/p>\n \u201cWFP urges safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to affected areas, calling on all parties to uphold the principles of humanitarian law \u2026 including ensuring access to food.\u201d<\/p>\n The UN agency provides direct food assistance to some 350,000 Palestinians monthly, while also offering aid to nearly 1 million Palestinians in cooperation with other humanitarian partners via cash transfers.<\/p>\n WFP said it was ready to set up pre-positioned food stocks for people who had been displaced or were in shelters.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile most shops in the affected areas in Palestine currently maintain one month of food stocks, these risk being depleted swiftly as people buy up food in fear of a prolonged conflict,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s President Ebrahim Raisi has spoken with leaders of Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, official media said today.<\/p>\n \u201cRaisi 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,\u201d state news agency IRNA<\/em> reported, without giving further details.<\/p>\n Earlier, President Raisi said Iran supported the Palestinians\u2019 right to self-defence and accused Israel of being a danger to the region, a day after Hamas militants attacked Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cIran supports the legitimate defence of the Palestinian nation,\u201d Raisi said, quoted by state television.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Zionist regime (Israel) and its supporters are responsible for endangering the security of nations in the region, and they must be held accountable in this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, President Arif Alvi said on Sunday morning that \u201cprogress towards peace cannot materialise without condemnation of usurpation and brutalisation of Palestinian rights and people by Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cContinuous 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said that Pakistan was \u201cdeeply concerned by the escalating hostility in the Middle East and the loss of innocent lives\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Jilani said the international community needed to intervene to \u201cbring an end to the conflict, protect civilians, and work towards a lasting peace in the Middle East\u201d.<\/p>\n The debris from Saturday\u2019s attack still lay around southern Israeli towns and border communities on Sunday morning and Israelis were reeling from the sight of bloodied bodies lying on suburban streets, in cars and in their homes.<\/p>\n Palestinian fighters escaped back into Gaza with dozens of hostages, including both soldiers and civilians. Hamas said it would issue a statement later on Sunday saying how many captives it had seized.<\/p>\n About 30 missing Israelis attending a dance party that was targeted during Saturday\u2019s attack emerged from hiding on Sunday, Israeli media reported.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Israeli ambassador to US said an unknown number of Americans were among hostages held by Hamas.<\/p>\n The diplomat, Michael Herzog, was asked on CBS News<\/em> if there were Americans among the soldiers and civilians that the Palestinian militant group abducted in southern Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand there are, but I don\u2019t have details,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The capture of so many Israelis, some filmed being pulled through security checkpoints or driven, bleeding, into Gaza, adds another layer of complication for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after previous episodes when hostages were exchanged for many Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\n Hamas fired more rocket salvoes into Israel on Sunday, with air raid sirens sounding across the south, and the Israeli military said it would combine an evacuation of border areas with a search for more gunmen.<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s office said his security cabinet had approved steps to destroy \u201cfor many years\u201d, the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant group that has said it is also holding captives, including cutting electricity, fuel supplies and the entry of goods into Gaza.<\/p>\n Israeli air strikes on Gaza began soon after the Hamas attack and continued overnight and into Sunday, destroying the group\u2019s offices and training camps, but also houses and other buildings. Hamas said Israel had cut off water to some areas.<\/p>\n More than 20,000 Palestinians in the Gaza have sought refuge in schools run by the United Nations, the UN\u2019s Palestinian refugee agency said.<\/p>\n Black smoke, orange flashes and sparks lit the sky from explosions. Israeli drones could be heard overhead. Unlike in some previous rounds of strikes, Israel\u2019s military did not give advance warning of strikes on residential buildings.<\/p>\n In a refugee camp in central Gaza, neighbours removed rubble to retrieve the bodies of seven people from one family, including five children, whose house had been bombed.<\/p>\n In Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, people searched through the remains of a mosque early on Sunday. \u201cWe ended the night prayers and suddenly the mosque was bombed. They terrorised the children, the elderly and women,\u201d said resident Ramez Hneideq.<\/p>\n Conditions in the West Bank have worsened under Netanyahu\u2019s hard-right government with more Israeli raids and assaults by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages, and the Palestinian Authority called for an emergency Arab League meeting.<\/p>\n Peacemaking has been stalled for years and Israeli politics have been convulsed this year by internal wrangles over Netanyahu\u2019s plans to overhaul the judiciary.<\/p>\n Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the assault that began in Gaza would spread to the West Bank and Jerusalem. Gazans have lived under an Israeli-led blockade for 16 years, since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.<\/p>\n In a speech, Haniyeh highlighted what he called threats to Jerusalem\u2019s Al-Aqsa Mosque, on a site that is also holy to Jews who know it as the Temple Mount, the continuation of Israel\u2019s blockade and Israeli normalisation with countries in the region.<\/p>\n \u201cHow many times have we warned you that the Palestinian people have been living in refugee camps for 75 years, and you refuse to recognise the rights of our people?\u201d<\/p>\n In the north, Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah said in a statement it had carried out a rocket and artillery attack on the Shebaa Farms, a slice of land occupied by Israel since 1967 that Lebanon claims.<\/p>\n Israel responded with artillery fire and drone strikes. Israeli television said it later employed a missile defence system. There were no reports of casualties.<\/p>\n Across the Middle East, there were demonstrations in support of Hamas, while Iran and Hezbollah praised the attack.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A day after Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel with a barrage of rockets and a large-scale ground assault, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Palestinians in Gaza to \u201cleave now\u201d as the death toll on both sides neared 1,000. The conflict\u2019s worst escalation in decades has claimed more than 600 lives, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/10\/08231441fbe1a93.jpg?r=231515","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}US to send military ships, aircraft closer to Israel<\/h2>\n
UN agency says humanitarian access needed to get food to Gaza<\/h2>\n
Iran\u2019s president speaks to Hamas, Islamic Jihad leaders<\/h2>\n
\u2018Time has come to move forward in line with UN resolutions\u2019<\/h2>\n
Hostages<\/h2>\n
\u2018Terrorised children\u2019<\/h2>\n