Israel says it’s «taking more time» than expected to fend off an unprecedented attack by Hamas, as airstrikes and gun battles continued for a third day.
Tel Aviv — Israel’s military said Monday morning that it struck hundreds of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip overnight as four combat divisions were deployed to the country’s south, where continued. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said «fighter jets and helicopters, aircraft and artillery struck over 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip» Sunday night and Monday morning, claiming to have destroyed tunnels and at least seven «Hamas command centers» in the blockaded Palestinian territory.
The IDF said it also struck a command center used by Islamic Jihad, another Iran-backed terror group based in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
«It’s taking more time than we expected to get things back into a defensive security posture,» Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told journalists Monday morning, acknowledging the ongoing battles in southern Israel three days after on the Jewish state.Death toll mounts in Israel and Gaza
Officials said the Israeli death toll from Hamas’ surprise attack stood at 700 Monday morning, but it was expected to continue to rise. More than 250 of the dead were people who had been attending a music festival near the border with Gaza when the attack took place. At least four U.S. nationals were among the dead, and an undetermined number remained missing.
