Israel claims Gaza border areas retaken as war death toll mounts

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel said it recaptured Gaza border areas from Hamas resistance group as the war's death toll passed 3,000 on Tuesday, the fourth day of fierce fighting since the Islamists launched a surprise attack.

Fears of a regional conflagration have surged amid expectations of a looming Israeli ground incursion into Gaza, the crowded enclave from where Hamas launched its land, air and sea attack on the Jewish Sabbath.

Gaza officials have reported 765 people killed so far, while death toll Israel has surged above 900.

The Israeli army has called up 300,000 reservists for its "Swords of Iron" campaign and massed tanks and other heavy armour both near Gaza and on the northern border with Lebanon.

The military said its forces had largely reclaimed the embattled south and the border around Gaza and dislodged holdout Hamas fighters from more than a dozen towns and kibbutzim.

Key ally the United States, which reported 11 of its own citizens killed, and more missing in the spiralling conflict, stressed its full support for Israel, as did Britain, France, Germany and Italy.

Their leaders said they “recognise 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.

The five Western powers and many other nations have reported citizens killed, abducted or missing, also including Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Nepal, Panama, Paraguay, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Ukraine.

Hamas has held around 150 hostages since its ground incursion, among them children, elderly and young people who were captured at a music festival where some 270 died.

On Monday, Hamas warned it would start killing hostages every time Israel launches a strike on a civilian target in Gaza without warning.

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.

Fireballs repeatedly lit up Gaza City before dawn Tuesday as explosions shook the ground and sirens wailed.

A distraught man was seen carrying the shrouded body of a child in Khan Yunis, in the south of the enclave, where other remains were piled onto the back of pickup trucks.

There were similar scenes in the kibbutz of Kfar Aza, where Israeli soldiers carried away the dead in black body bags.

The tension was felt on the deserted streets of Jerusalem, after it was targeted by Hamas rocket fire.

“Israeli people they are scared of the Arabs and the Arabs are scared of the Jews... everybody is scared of each other,” said Ahmed Karkash, a shop-owner in the Old City.

In Gaza City, aerial footage shot by AFP showed the scale of the destruction, with entire building blocks reduced to rubble.

One resident, Muhammad Najib, 70, said he fled his home Monday after receiving an Israeli warning to evacuate and returned on Tuesday to a “terrifying scene” in his Al Rimal neighbourhood.

“The entire area was devastated, a large number of houses were completely destroyed,” he said. “What is the fault of the children and the women?”

Four Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli air strikes on Gaza City, media unions and officials said.

Israel imposed a total siege on long-blockaded Gaza on Monday, cutting off the water supply, food, electricity and other essential supplies.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply distressed” by the siege announcement and warned Gaza’s already dire humanitarian situation will now “only deteriorate exponentially”.

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”.