Israel’s Death Toll Climbs To 1,200 With 2,700 Injured; Pounds Gaza Neighborhoods Ahead of Likely Ground Invasion

Israel carried out relentless bombing of Gaza on Wednesday ahead of a possible ground invasion to destroy Hamas, as Palestinians fled from neighborhood to neighborhood seeking shelter and escape. 

The death toll in Israel from Hamas’ staggering weekend assault rose to 1,200 on Wednesday, with more than 2,700 wounded, as the army continued to find large numbers of massacred civilians. Palestinian deaths in Gaza climbed to 1,050, with 5,100 people injured in the ongoing Israeli bombing campaign.

An estimated 150 hostages abducted from Israel remained in Hamas custody in Gaza, their whereabouts unknown. On Tuesday, Pope Francis urged the radical Islamist movement to free the captives.  

The Israeli Defense Forces launched airstrikes on a Hezbollah observation post in southern Lebanon after the Shiite militia claimed credit for an anti-tank missile attack it said had caused “a large number of confirmed casualties” at an IDF border post amid fear of a wider conflict encompassing Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian militants on the occupied West Bank.

One day after military officials said they had finally sealed the southern border after Hamas tore several holes through Israel’s $1.1 billion border fence, the fear of continued incursions was strong. 

Israel’s minister of national security, Itamar Ben Gvir, announced Tuesday that residents of the southern city of Sderot — where Hamas troops rampaged, killing dozens — would now be allowed to walk armed in public.

“Important news - every resident of Sderot will be able to carry a weapon starting this morning,” Ben Gvir wrote on X, the former Twitter. Israel said Tuesday it had recovered the bodies of 1,500 militants from the south.

In Gaza, rescue officials said “large numbers” of people remained trapped under leveled buildings, with rescue equipment and ambulances unable to reach them.

“I sell toys, not missiles,’’ Abdullah Musleh, 46, told the Associated Press after civil defense workers pulled him and 30 others from the basement of their flattened apartment building. “I want to leave Gaza. Why do I have to stay here? I lost my home and my job.”

But there was no escape. Israel on Tuesday bombed the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, and has declared a “total siege” of the territory. 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told soldiers on Tuesday near the Gaza border that a ground offensive was coming. 

"Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be," he said. "We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground. We've been controlling the area since Day 2 and we are on the offensive. It will only intensify."