Israel announced today that it has restored control of its borders with the Gaza Strip and laying mines where fighters from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas tore down the fence during Saturday’s bloody attack on Israel from the Palestinian enclave, following another night of heavy Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

Israel’s new airstrikes they were launched after Hamas threatened to execute an Israeli hostage every time Israel bombed a Palestinian home without warning.

The Israeli army also called up an unprecedented 300,000 reservists, and imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip, raising fears it is planning a ground offensive in response to Hamas’s boldest and bloodiest attack in decades.

The violence has killed more than 1,500 people and prompted international statements of support for Israel, demonstrations in support of the Palestinians and calls to end the fighting and protect civilians.

Israeli television networks reported that the number of Israelis who died in the Hamas attack reached 900, while at least 2,600 were injured and dozens were taken hostage. Among the Israeli dead are 260 mostly young people who were shot at a music festival in the desert, where some of the hostages were taken.

In comments quoted by Israel Defense Forces Radio, the army’s chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said there had been no new infiltrations from Gaza since yesterday, Monday. In an apparent response to rumors that gunmen used cross-border tunnels, Hagari noted that the military has not found any such thing.

Gaza’s health ministry also announced yesterday that at least 687 Palestinians were killed and 3,726 wounded by Israeli airstrikes in the enclave following the Hamas attack on Saturday.

Apartment buildings, a mosque and hospitals are among the places attacked and the strikes destroyed roads and houses, according to media reports and eyewitnesses.

Israel also bombed the headquarters of the private Palestinian Telecommunications Company, which may affect landline, internet and mobile phone services.

The strikes continued last night. Israel’s military said it struck targets in the Gaza Strip from the air and sea, including an arms depot it said belonged to Islamic Jihad, and Hamas targets along the Gaza coast.

Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaydah threatened yesterday, Monday, that its fighters would kill Israelis among the dozens they are holding hostage after their surprise attack on Saturday morning. As he noted, Hamas will execute an Israeli hostage for every Israeli bombing of a civilian home without warning and broadcast the execution.

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to this threat. Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said more than 100 people were taken hostage by Hamas during its deadly incursion into Israeli territory over the weekend.

They leave their homes

Palestinians are reportedly receiving phone calls and audio messages on cellphones from Israeli security officers telling them to leave areas mainly in northern and eastern Gaza and warning them that the army will conduct operations there.

Dozens of people in the Remal neighborhood of Gaza City fled their homes.

“We took children and grandchildren and daughters-in-law and left. I can say we have become refugees. We are not safe. What life is this? It is not life,” said the 73-year-old resident Salah Hanuneh.

In southern Israel, where the Hamas attack took place, Israel’s chief military spokesman said the army had restored control of communities inside Israeli territory where Hamas militants had infiltrated, but added that clashes continued as some militants remained active.

The announcement that 300,000 reservists have been called up in just two days is fueling speculation that Israel may be planning a ground assault on Gaza, a territory it abandoned nearly two decades ago.

“We have never mobilized so many reservists on such a scale,” Hagari said. “We are going on the attack,” he noted.

Washington, which gives Israel $3.8 billion a year in military aid, announced it was sending new air defense supplies, ammunition and other security assistance to Israel.

The head of the US armed forces warned Iran not to get involved in the crisis and noted that it does not want an expansion of the conflict. Iran has made no secret of its support for Hamas and applauded Saturday’s attack, although it has denied any involvement.

“We want to send a clear message. We don’t want this to be amplified, and the point is for Iran to get that message loud and clear,” General Charles K. Brown, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told accompanying reporters. on his trip to Brussels.

Gauze

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken discussed US support for Israel in a telephone conversation with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, the US State Department said early this morning.

Blinken “reaffirmed our efforts to secure the immediate release of all hostages,” the State Department statement added.

Governments including those of Italy, Thailand and Ukraine reported their citizens dead or missing after the Hamas attack. In Washington, President Joe Biden announced that at least 11 Americans had been killed and that American citizens may be among those being held hostage.

As Israel carried out heavy retaliatory strikes on Gaza, the country’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallad sparked international outrage by announcing a tighter blockade of the Palestinian enclave to prevent food and fuel from reaching the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people.

Media close to Hamas reported that at least 20 people were killed in Israeli raids on homes in the Gaza Strip late Monday night. Palestinian media also reported that an Israeli airstrike on a building in Gaza City killed two Palestinian journalists and seriously injured a third.

Reuters has not yet been able to confirm this information. The Israeli military was not immediately available for comment.

International Reaction

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said 137,000 people have taken refuge with UNRWA, the UN agency that provides basic services to Palestinians.

The governments of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the US issued a joint statement recognizing the “legitimate expectations” of the Palestinian people and noting that they support equal measures of justice and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians.

They also say they will remain “united and coordinated” to ensure Israel can defend itself.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Hamas and Israel to immediately end violence and protect civilians, the Egyptian presidency announced.

Qatari mediators held emergency telephone contacts in an attempt to negotiate the release of Israeli women and children held by Hamas in exchange for the release of 36 Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons.

The prospect of widening conflicts has caused alarm in the region and the world.

Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in response to the death of at least three of its members in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon. Israel announced that one of its lieutenant commanders had been killed in an earlier cross-border raid from Lebanon.