Israel also bombed the headquarters of a private Palestinian telecommunications company, which may have affected Telephone services landline, internet and mobile telephony.

While the rain fell, explosions and lightning lit up the sky, and thunder mixed with the roar of bombing.

Another sign of Israel’s rapid transition to a military situation was the statement of a member of the Likud party cabinet. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu He said he could create a government of national unity, joined by opposition leaders within hours.

Netanyahu: Israeli response will ‘change the Middle East’

Netanyahu told mayors of southern cities hit by the surprise attack that Israel’s response “would change the Middle East“.

He then said that the atrocities committed by Hamas were a mirror image of the atrocities committed by the jihadist group. Islamic State. These actions “have not been seen since the atrocities of ISIS. The children were tied up and executed along with their families. Young men and women shot in the back are executed. Other horrors that I will not describe here,” Netanyahu said.

In the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, several men climbed onto a collapsed building to retrieve the tiny body of a baby from the rubble, which was lowered into the crowd among still smoldering remains. bombed buildings. The air attack killed and injured dozens of people, according to the enclave’s health ministry.

He UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterressaid some 137,000 people had taken refuge under the protection of UNRWA, the UN agency that provides basic services to Palestinians.

The possibility of the fighting spreading to other areas has alarmed the region. Israeli troops “They killed several armed suspects who had infiltrated from Lebanese territory,” the army said, adding that helicopters were “currently attacking the area.”

Hezbollah said at least three of its fighters They died from Israeli attacks and fired missiles in response.

Israeli armed forces activate reservists

Al-Quds BrigadesThe armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement has claimed responsibility for the attack on the border between Lebanon and Israel.

Israel’s top military spokesman said troops had regained control of communities that had been overrun in the country, but sporadic fighting continued as some Palestinian militants They were still active.

The shocking images of the bodies of hundreds of Israeli civilians strewn across city streets, gunned down in an open-air nightclub and abducted from their homes are unlike anything seen in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The announcement that 300,000 reservists had been activated in two days fueled speculation that Israel may be considering ground attack on Gaza Strip. “We have never recruited so many reservists on such a scale (…) We are going to go on the offensive,” said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagary.

Palestinians reported receiving calls and audio messages on their mobile phones from Israeli security officials asking them to leave areas, mainly in the northern and eastern Gaza Strip, and warning them that Army will operate there.

Hamas, an armed Islamist group which advocates Israel’s destruction, says its attack is justified by the plight of Gaza, under a 16-year siege, and the deadliest Israeli crackdown on the West Bank in years.

Major Palestinian groups that condemned the attacks confirmed that the violence, however, was predictable as the peace process has been frozen for almost a decade and the far-right Israeli leadership speaks of eventual annexation of Palestinian territory.

Destruction in the Gaza Strip

Israel and Western countries have said there is nothing that can justify the deliberate killing of civilians.

Action dozens of young Israelis were shot dead at an open-air party in the desert – a bloodbath in which, according to local press estimates, 260 people died. A day later, dozens of survivors were still emerging from their shelters, and the area was full of wrecked and abandoned cars.

“It was massacre everything,” said Arik Nani, who was celebrating his 26th birthday and escaped, hiding in a field for hours.

In the Gaza Strip, images captured Reuters They showed dozens of people scaling destroyed buildings in search of survivors, with the air still dusty from the impact. Sirens blared as rescuers put out flaming cars.