Israel imposes ‘complete siege’ on Gaza as Hamas threatens hostages

Israel imposed a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip, mobilised a record 300,000 reservists and pummelled the Hamas-controlled enclave by air as the Palestinian militant group threatened the lives of dozens of hostages.

The Israeli military said on Monday it had moved on to the offensive after regaining control of territory infiltrated by Hamas during the weekend attack, the deadliest within Israel since 1948.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the campaign was “just getting started” as he vowed a “difficult and terrible” experience for Hamas and promised “to change the Middle East”.

But Hamas said on Monday evening it would execute a captive for each new air strike that hit Palestinian civilians and came without warning.

The group has abducted at least 100 people, including women, children, Israeli soldiers and foreign nationals.

“We announce that [for] every targeting of our people who are safe in their houses, without prior warning, we will regrettably meet with the execution of one of the enemy’s civilian hostages,” the group said in a recording released to Al Jazeera.

More than 1,500 people have died since Saturday, including more than 900 Israeli civilians and troops, and 687 people in Gaza, according to Israeli media and a Palestinian health ministry spokesman.

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“Not since the Holocaust have so many Jews been killed on one day,” said Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president. “And not since the Holocaust have we witnessed scenes of Jewish women and children, grandparents — even Holocaust survivors — being herded into trucks and taken into captivity.”

As fighting raged on, Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, said he had ordered Gaza’s “complete siege”.

He added: “There will be no electricity, food or fuel [delivered to Gaza]. We are fighting barbaric [terrorists] and will respond accordingly.”

The Israeli government said it had ordered the cut-off of water to Gaza, a densely populated, hemmed-in strip of land that is home to 2.3mn people.

As expectations grew that Israel will launch its first ground offensive into Gaza in almost a decade, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the call-up of 300,000 reservists was the largest in the country’s history.

“We have never drafted so many reservists on such a scale,” he added. “We are going on the offensive.”

Netanyahu posted video of tumbling tower blocks in Gaza after Israeli jets, helicopters, aircraft and artillery struck hundreds of what the military said were “terrorist targets”.

The IDF said it had regained “full control” over communities near the enclave that had been infiltrated by Gaza militants at the weekend.

It added its helicopters were also “striking in Lebanese territory” to Israel’s north, shortly after it said it had killed “a number of militants” who had crossed into the country.

In a statement confirming the deaths of three of its fighters, Lebanese militant group Hizbollah said it had fired rockets and mortars on two Israeli military posts across the border in Galilee.

The violence on the Lebanese-Israeli border comes amid fears of a broader conflict on multiple fronts.

US president Joe Biden, British prime minister Rishi Sunak and the leaders of Germany, France and Italy issued a new expression of support for Israel and an “unequivocal condemnation” of Hamas and its “appalling acts of terrorism”.

“We will remain united and co-ordinated, together as allies, and as common friends of Israel, to ensure Israel is able to defend itself, and to ultimately set the conditions for a peaceful and integrated Middle East region,” the leaders said. 

In an attempt to prevent the conflict from escalating, Qatar has held talks with Israel and Hamas to secure a deal in which the militant group would agree to release women and children it is holding hostage, a person briefed on the discussions said.

The person added that in return the Jewish state could release Palestinian women and children held in its prisons and that the talks were supported by the US. But there was no immediate sign any such contacts were bearing fruit.

Biden said 11 Americans had been killed since Saturday, adding “it is likely that American citizens may be among those being held by Hamas”. France said two of its citizens had died.

The US is surging air defence and munitions to Israel, a senior US defence official said.

Washington is treating the current conflict between Israel and Hamas differently than other rounds of fighting in previous years. “This is Isis-level savagery that we have seen committed against Israeli civilians,” the US official said. “It’s unprecedented.”

The EU said it was putting all of its development funding for the Palestinian territories under review in response to Hamas’s attack, affecting €691mn in aid.

Aid groups said Gaza was facing a dire future. “The unprecedented scale of hostilities threatens a humanitarian emergency on an unimaginable scale, even for a region all too familiar with disaster,” said Nadim Zaghloul, Palestine director at ActionAid, a humanitarian and campaigning group.

He added: “With a ‘total blockade’ announced . . . in Gaza, over 2mn people will be plunged even further into crisis and completely cut off from food, electricity and fuel.”

UN secretary-general António Guterres called for “all sides” to allow access for “urgent humanitarian assistance” for Palestinian civilians trapped in Gaza, adding he had received reports of Israeli missiles striking health facilities in the territory.

As the reverberations from the conflict spread, Chevron said on Monday it had been instructed by Israel’s energy ministry to halt production at its offshore Tamar gasfield in the Mediterranean but would continue to supply its customers in Israel.

The price of Brent crude oil rose about 3.7 per cent to just below $88 a barrel amid concerns about fallout from the conflict.

Several international airlines — including Cathay Pacific, easyJet and Lufthansa — have suspended flights to Israel following Hamas’s attack.

Additional reporting by Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv, Felicia Schwartz in Washington and Henry Foy in Brussels