Israel Seals Gaza Border With Land Mines as War’s Civilian Death Toll Rises to More Than 1,800

Israel said on Tuesday it had wiped out a cell of Hamas militants hiding on a beach one and a half miles from the Gaza border, as Israeli bombing of Gaza continued.

“IDF troops killed a number of armed terrorists in the Zikim beach area a short while ago,” a military spokesman said, according to the Times of Israel.

"This morning a combat helicopter attacked a terrorist squad that was identified near the fence in the Zikim area," the Israeli air force said on X, the former Twitter. An Apache helicopter "attacked the squad after a short time and eliminated it."

The action came as Israel announced it had finally taken control of its border with Gaza, four days after Hamas fighters stunned the Middle East’s most powerful military with an armed incursion that massacred hundreds of civilians. 

The total death toll from the war stood at 1,700 dead on Tuesday morning, with more than 1,000 Israelis reported killed in the Hamas attack and 830 Palestinians dead in relentless Israeli bombing of Gaza. 

The bodies of 1,500 militants also had been found on Israeli territory, the military said.

President Joe Biden said 11 Americans had been confirmed killed in the Hamas attack.

On Tuesday, the Israel Health Ministry reportedly said that 4,250 people have been hurt and brought to hospital since the beginning of the attacks Saturday.

The Israeli death toll rose sharply by 100 Monday evening after the discovery of 100 bodies at Be'eri, a small farming community that was the scene of a hostage standoff.

Israel continued its air strikes Monday night after Hamas threatened to execute an Israeli captive each time Israel bombed a Palestinian home without warning. Gilad Eran, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, said Tuesday that Hamas held "between 100 and 150" hostages who were abducted from Israel in Gaza — including women, children, and the elderly.

Israeli military officials said they had reestablished control of the border after Hamas punched more than a dozen holes in its high-tech wall using drones, rockets and bulldozers on Saturday morning.

Mines were being laid to block the openings, Reuters reported.

“We have only started striking Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address late Monday. “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”

More than 360,000 reservists were called up for a possible land assault on Gaza, a territory of 2.3 million people the size of Rhode Island wedged between Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea. 

Israel said it struck hundreds of targets in Gaza’s City Rimal neighborhood, a densely populated, upscale district where ministries of the Hamas-run government are located. The district is also home to universities, media organizations and the offices of aid organizations.

As hospitals ran out of stock in Gaza, World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic called for access to the wounded. "A humanitarian corridor is needed to reach people with critical medical supplies," Jasarevic said in a statement.

An estimated 187,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes, as bombs continued to fall on Gaza City and other towns, the U.N. said. UNRWA, the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency,  said it was sheltering more than 137,000 people in schools, while families had taken 41,000 others. 

Israeli Army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht suggested on Tuesday that Palestinians could escape the bombing through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. That crossing is closed to normal traffic. Hecht later walked back his comments.

The Gaza death toll included more than 100 women and 100 children, Palestinian health officials told BBC.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned that Israel’s declared siege of Gaza would be an “utter disaster.” 

“There is no doubt that collective punishment is in violation of international law,” Egeland told AP. 

“If and when it would lead to wounded children dying in hospitals because of lack of energy, electricity and supplies, it could amount to war crimes.”
On the West Bank, 17 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces, the U.N. reported, and Israeli troops traded fire with Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon.

The U.S. has moved the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford to the eastern Mediterranean for a possible mission to evacuate Americans from Israel, The Messenger reported Monday.