Israel declared a "complete siege" of Gaza yesterday, cutting it off from water and power supplies as Hamas militants threatened to start killing civilian hostages if Israel bombed residential areas without warning.
Palestinian militants abducted more than 100 people during the surprise multi-front attack on Saturday in which they killed more than 700 making it the deadliest day in Israel's history. The UN said yesterday the Israeli death toll stood at 800.
In response to the attack, Israel launched strikes from the air and sea, which medics said had killed more than 680 Palestinians in Gaza, an area home to 2.3 million people with nowhere to flee. Separately, about 120 miles north of Gaza, Israel said its forces had fought off gunmen crossing from Lebanon - an incident that raises the spectre of a second front in the unfolding war.
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, formally declared war and called up 300,000 reservists for duty on Sunday, signalling a possible ground assault in Gaza - a development that in the past has always brought further bloodshed.
However, Israeli forces face the unprecedented task of fighting an urban war while dozens of hostages are likely to be hidden in tunnels and basements across the Gaza Strip.
Abu Ubaida, a spokesperson for the armed wing of Hamas, confirmed the worst fears for the Israeli public yesterday when he claimed that their own bombardment had already killed "four of the enemy's captives and their captors".
Later he said Hamas would begin killing a captive civilian each time Israel bombed residential homes "without prior warning".
In an audio statement, Ubaida said Gaza had witnessed strikes by Israel on civilian areas in which apartments were destroyed over people's heads.
In previous rounds of fighting, Israel has sometimes warned civilians in Gaza of impending attacks on residential buildings.
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