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More than 1,700 are dead as Israel continues its retaliation over a surprise weekend attack by Hamas militants that has shaken the Middle East and ignited fears of a bigger regional escalation.
Israel’s military said Tuesday it had regained effective control over its south and the border with Gaza, four days after Hamas fighters stormed into the country and brought gun battles to its streets in the deadliest attack in decades.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the country was “at war” over the weekend, and foreign governments are trying to determine how many of their citizens are dead, missing or in need of medical help or flights home.
Here is what you need to know this Tuesday.
Trudeau condemns Hamas at Ottawa rally
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among the many world leaders who condemned Hamas – a listed terrorist organization in Canada, the U.S. and Europe – for carrying out the attack.
At an Israeli solidarity rally in Ottawa Monday night, Trudeau reiterated his government’s support for Israel during the conflict.
He spoke after demonstrations that played out over the Thanksgiving long weekend in Canada in support of Palestinians raised concerns from premiers, mayors and law enforcement about how to handle any demonstrations of support for Hamas.
“Let me be very clear. Hamas terrorists aren’t a resistance. They’re not freedom fighters,” Trudeau said.
“They are terrorists, and no one in Canada should be supporting them, much less celebrating them.”
At least one Canadian has died in the attack, and three others from Winnipeg, Ottawa and Vancouver are believed to be missing, officials have said.
Roughly 1,000 Israelis have died after the Hamas attack, Israeli embassy officials in the United States said on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday.
In Gaza and the West Bank, 765 people have been killed, according to authorities there.
Israel expanded its mobilization of military reservists to 360,000 on Tuesday, according to the country’s media. The military said it struck hundreds of Hamas targets overnight in Gaza.
Tens of thousands of residents fled their homes as airstrikes levelled buildings, including in Gaza City’s residential and commercial district of Rimal.
Israel’s defence forces said on X that aircraft had hit military targets, including weapons storage and manufacturing sites, and in a statement on Tuesday said Israeli airstrikes had killed two senior Hamas officials.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Tuesday that Israel’s strikes hit residential buildings and schools across Gaza. They also hit the “premises of the UN relief and works agency, UNRWA (UN Palestinian refugee agency),” a UN rights office statement said, adding that civilians were among the dead and injured.
Hamas, which Israel says kidnapped more than 150 people during its weekend raid, has warned it will kill one of the hostages every time Israel’s military bombs civilian targets in Gaza without warning.
Turk also condemned “horrifying mass killings by members of Palestinian armed groups” and said the militants’ abduction of hostages was also forbidden under international law.
On Monday, Israel announced a “complete siege” on Gaza, halting deliveries of food, fuel, water, medicines, electricity and other supplies.
Turk also said Israel’s “imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law.”
Some 187,500 people have fled their homes in Gaza, a UN humanitarian office offices spokesperson said Tuesday.
U.S. President Joe Biden is set to speak on the situation at 1 p.m. eastern Tuesday.
Washington is delivering munitions and military equipment to Israel, and the Pentagon is reviewing inventories to see what else can be sent quickly, a senior Defense Department official said Monday.
The official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive shipments. The weapons movement came after Biden announced that the U.S. death toll in the war had gone up to 11.
The conflict threatens to delay or derail a country-by-country diplomatic push by the United States to improve relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours.
Hamas’s attacks in Israel and much of the Arab world’s response to it raised questions about whether Palestinian ambitions for sovereignty could be put aside during the so-called normalization push.
The U.S. on Sunday afternoon began moving the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group into the eastern Mediterranean “to bolster regional deterrence efforts” as fears grow of a broader spread of violence.
Included in the U.S. strike group moving into the eastern Mediterranean are the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the guided missile cruiser USS Normandy and guided missile destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney and USS Roosevelt.
Last week it was conducting naval exercises with Italy in the Ionian Sea. It’s the United States’ newest and most advanced aircraft carrier and this is its first full deployment.
— with files from The Associated Press and Reuters
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