The Hamas movement has threatened to kill an Israeli hostage every time Israel bombs a Palestinian home without warning as Israel mobilised some 300,000 reservists and imposed a total blockade of the Gaza Strip denying the enclave\u2019s millions of residents access to food, water and fuel.
The warning from Hamas came on Monday as the death toll from the armed group\u2019s surprise weekend attack climbed to 900 in Israel and revenge attacks by Israeli forces on the besieged Gaza Strip killed more than 700 people and left over 3,700 wounded.
Residential apartment blocks, hospitals, schools and a mosque have been among the sites attacked by Israeli jet fighters, artillery and drones, according to media reports and witnesses.
Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida issued the threat on Monday to kill Israelis among the dozens held captive by the armed group. He said an Israeli hostage would be killed for every Israeli bombing of a civilian house without warning.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said more than 100 people were taken captive by Hamas during the deadly cross-border incursion over the weekend.
As Israeli forces conducted intense retaliatory attacks on Gaza on Monday, Israel\u2019s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant drew international condemnation by announcing a total blockade of the densely populated and besieged enclave, which home to 2.3 million people.
Gallant said Israel would impose a \u201ccomplete siege\u201d on Gaza: \u201cNo electricity, no food, no water, no gas \u2013 it\u2019s all closed.\u201d
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was \u201cdeeply distressed\u201d by the siege announcement and warned that Gaza\u2019s already dire humanitarian situation will now \u201conly deteriorate exponentially\u201d.
Guterres also said some 137,000 people were taking shelter with UNRWA, the UN agency that provides essential services to Palestinians.
Human Rights Watch said Israel\u2019s total blockade on the necessities of life for everyday people in Gaza was a war crime.
\u201cDefense Minister Gallant\u2019s statements are abhorrent,\u201d Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
\u201cDepriving the population in an occupied territory of food and electricity is collective punishment, which is a war crime, as is using starvation as a weapon of war. The International Criminal Court should take note of this call to commit a war crime,\u201d he said.
Shakir also condemned the threat by Hamas to kill hostages, warning that such action was also a war crime.
\u201cAll hostages should be safely released to their families,\u201d he said.
On the diplomatic front, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Recep Erdogan called on Hamas and Israel to immediately end violence and protect civilians, the Egyptian presidency said.
Erdogan urged Israel against \u201cindiscriminately\u201d attacking civilians and delivered measured criticism of Hamas, urging both sides to respect the \u201cethics\u201d of war.
The United Kingdom, French, German, Italian and US governments issued a joint statement on Monday recognising the \u201clegitimate aspirations\u201d of the Palestinian people and supporting equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
They also said they would remain \u201cunited and coordinated\u201d to ensure Israel can defend itself.
But the prospect that fighting could spread also alarmed the region and the world.
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in response to at least three of its members being killed in Israeli shelling of Lebanon.
Israel also said one of its deputy commanders was killed in an earlier cross-border raid from Lebanon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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