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Israel-Palestine conflict: Israel retakes Gaza border areas as war death toll mounts

The death toll in the conflict has surged above 3,000

Published: Tue 10 Oct 2023, 7:49 PM

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  • AFP

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Photo: AFP

Photo: AFP

Israel said it recaptured Gaza border areas from Hamas militants as the war's death toll passed 3,000 on Tuesday, the fourth day of fierce fighting since the militant group launched a surprise attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Israel's military campaign following Saturday's onslaught was only the start of a sustained war to destroy Hamas and "change the Middle East".

Fears of a regional conflagration have surged amid expectations of a looming Israeli ground incursion into Gaza, the crowded enclave from where Hamas launched its land, air and sea attack on the Jewish Sabbath.

The death toll in Israel has surged above 900 from the worst attack in the country's 75-year history, while Gaza officials have reported 765 people killed so far.

Hamas gunmen killed more than 100 people in the kibbutz of Beeri alone, said Moti Bukjin, a volunteer with the charity Zaka that recovers bodies in accordance with Jewish law.

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Netanyahu compared the large-scale slaughter of Israeli civilians to the atrocities committed by the Islamic State group, when they controlled vast swathes of Syria and Iraq.

The veteran leader at the helm of Israel's hard-right coalition also called for an "emergency government of national unity" after years of political crisis and bitter societal divisions.

The Israeli army has called up 300,000 reservists for its "Swords of Iron" campaign and massed tanks and other heavy armour both near Gaza and on the northern border with Lebanon.

The military said its forces had largely reclaimed the embattled south and the border around Gaza and dislodged holdout Hamas fighters from more than a dozen towns and kibbutzim.

"Around 1,500 bodies of Hamas (fighters) have been found in Israel around the Gaza Strip," said army spokesman Richard Hecht, adding security forces had "more or less restored control over the border" with the enclave.

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