As the armed conflict between the Palestinian armed faction Hamas and Israel enters its third day, casualties are rapidly increasing.
With the death toll on both sides approaching 1,300, there are also predictions that Israel will soon deploy ground troops into the Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas.
According to major foreign media outlets, including AFP, on the 9th (local time), at least 700 people were killed in Israel after Hamas' surprise attack in the early morning of the 7th.
Most of them were killed by Hamas militants who infiltrated southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.
A pile of 260 bodies was discovered near the music festival venue in Kibbutz Laim, southern Israel.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Major General Daniel Hagari said it was “the worst massacre of innocent civilians in Israel’s history.”
Local Israeli media reported that Hamas took more than 100 people hostage, including dozens of festival participants.
It is known that these include multinational hostages, so those countries are also paying close attention.
As Israel takes revenge, casualties in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, ruled by Hamas, are rapidly increasing.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that 560 people were killed and 2,900 injured in the Gaza Strip due to Israeli airstrikes on this day.
The number of people who died on both sides reached nearly 1,300 in three days.
On this day, fighting between both sides continued within Israeli territory.
Major General Hagari said this morning that control of the area around the Gaza Strip separation barrier had been fully restored, but that "there is a possibility that Hamas militants are still present in our territory."
Reuters reported that an explosion was heard and an air raid alarm sounded due to a Hamas rocket attack in Jerusalem, Israel on this day.
The Israeli military also announced that it had killed several militants who had infiltrated northern Israel from Lebanon.
The al-Quds Brigades, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, claimed responsibility for the fighting.
Israel, which has succeeded in defeating most of the Hamas militants, is now preparing to destroy Hamas.
“I have ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on this day. “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything will be closed.”
Defense Secretary Gallant added that Israel is "fighting beasts in human clothing, and we will respond accordingly."
The British daily Telegraph analyzed that Israel may be planning to subdue Hamas through a long-term siege and continuous airstrikes before deploying ground forces.
It is feared that anti-aircraft operations in the Gaza Strip will result in significant civilian casualties.
The Gaza Strip is experiencing serious hardships due to the Israeli blockade policy implemented since 2007, which has restricted the entry of daily necessities and medicines.
Meanwhile, if the supply of electricity, food, fuel, etc. is further restricted, approximately 2.37 million people (as of 2022) living in the Gaza Strip may be forced into a humanitarian disaster.
A procession of refugees has already continued in the Gaza Strip.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) calculated that more than 120,000 people in the Gaza Strip have fled.
As Israel mobilized 300,000 reserve troops over the past 48 hours, the question of whether to deploy ground forces to the Gaza Strip has emerged as a major issue.
“We are examining all possibilities, including ground operations in the Gaza Strip,” Hagari said.
The Washington Post reported, “Israel is expected to begin ground operations in the Gaza Strip within 24 to 48 hours.”
However, there is also a view that it will be difficult for Hamas to launch a ground war hastily because it is using Israeli citizens and other multinational hostages as 'human shields'.
If an operation is carried out without considering the safety of hostages and casualties occur, diplomatic issues may arise.
The United States has moved and deployed the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier strike group, known as the world's largest, to the Eastern Mediterranean near Israel.
The aircraft carrier battle group consisted of the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, the cruiser Normandy, and the destroyers Thomas Hudner, Mammy, Carney, and Roosevelt.
There are also concerns that this war may escalate into a proxy war between the United States, which supports Israel, and Iran, which is accused of being behind Hamas.
On the other hand, the Iranian government drew a line in response to the Hamas theory, saying, "We were not involved, and this was purely done by the Palestinians themselves."
Reuters reported that Qatar is acting as a mediator to negotiate a deal to exchange Israeli women and children hostage taken by Hamas for 36 Palestinian women and children imprisoned in Israel.
Hamas claimed four hostages were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip.
Josep Borrell, the European Union's (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, plans to urgently convene an unofficial Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Muscat, Oman, on the 10th to discuss the full implications of this incident.
EU member states have declared Hamas' surprise attack on Israel a terrorist attack and have begun to tighten the purse strings on Palestine.
“The European Commission, the largest donor to Palestine, will review its entire development aid portfolio, worth a total of $691 million,” said European Commission member for enlargement policy Oliver Barheli. Yes.
Following Germany, the EU's largest economy, declaring the previous day to review the origin of financial support for Palestine, Austria, another member state, announced on the same day that it would suspend 19 million euros (about 27 billion won) of aid to Palestine.