Israel-Hamas conflict death toll crosses 2,400, Lebanon's Hezbollah targets Israeli military

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, October 11

The death toll in the Hamas strike and Israel’s incessant bombing of Gaza for the past 72 hours has crossed 2,400 by the end of Wednesday evening.

Both sides are claiming an equal number of dead including women, children and the elderly.

The Israeli military said over 1,200 people, including 155 soldiers, have been killed since October 7 and 150 soldiers and civilians have been taken hostage.

Gaza’s authorities say a similar number of people have so far been killed, including nine medics of the Red Crescent. The tiny strip of land has been under Israeli blockade for the past 16 years.

With Israeli airstrikes under “Operation Swords of Iron” reducing city blocks to rubble in Gaza, there are fears that the toll will jump once the bodies beneath the debris are accounted for. However, the carpet bombing has so failed to suppress Hamas rocket attacks which on Wednesday forced the closure of the Ben Gurion airport and disrupted life in the port city of Ashkelon.

Humanitarian groups are pleading for the creation of corridors to funnel aid into Gaza. They have warned that hospitals are overcrowded with the injured and medicines were hard to come by after Israel blockaded the entry of food, fuel and medicine into Gaza while its sole power plant has run out of fuel.

The war, however, is likely to escalate and widen as Hezbollah in Lebanon also fired off rockets into Israel and claimed to have hit an Israeli garrison leading to casualties. The Houthis in Yemen and Al Badr in Iraq have also sounded warnings even as an American aircraft carrier reached the vicinity of Israel in a show of solidarity with military muscle.

The Gaza authority says they are facing a humanitarian disaster and appealed to the International community to persuade Israel to stop the attacks.

However, Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu and the military have said there will be unprecedented retaliation against Hamas until its military potential is completely degraded.

Normal life in Israel has also been disrupted. Its schools which have been shut since last week will now move to remote learning from Sunday, said its Education Ministry.