Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Israel's military campaign was only the start of a sustained war to destroy Hamas.
Israel said it had largely secured the Gaza border and was evacuating nearby towns where the bodies of 1,500 Hamas militants had been recovered by Tuesday after days of grueling battles outside the Palestinian enclave.
Hamas gunmen killed more than 100 people in the kibbutz of Beeri alone, said Moti Bukjin, a volunteer with the charity Zaka that recovers bodies in accordance with Jewish law. The veteran leader at the helm of Israel's hard-right coalition also called for an "emergency government of national unity" after years of political crisis and bitter societal divisions.
Their five leaders said they "recognize the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people" but said Hamas "offers nothing for the Palestinian people other than more terror and bloodshed", in a joint statement released by the White House. Fear and chaos reigned among the 2.3 million Palestinians living in the crowded and impoverished coastal territory that has been hammered by thousands of Israeli bombs.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Tuesday that imposing "sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law". Three Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli air strike that hit a Gaza City residential building, a media union and a Hamas official said.Israel has been left reeling by Hamas's unprecedented ground, air and sea assault, that has included thousands of rockets, likening it to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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