More than 1,500 people have been killed – with more than 10 Britons feared dead or missing – as Israel on Monday declared a “complete siege” on Gaza in retaliation for a massive attack by Hamas militants.
The decision to cut off water, food and power to the enclave that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians has been backed by hundreds of Israeli strikes from air and sea. Those inside Gaza say it will be “catastrophic” for people with nowhere to turn.
Around 900 people are said to have been killed in Israel and more than 680 Palestinians killed in Gaza. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.
More than two days after Hamas launched its surprise attack, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that there were a “a number” of Palestinian gunmen in Israel, although the country’s military said that it had largely gained control in southern towns after firefights in the street. On Monday rescue workers found 100 bodies in a tiny farming community after a long hostage standoff with gunmen.
Mr Netanyahu said that Israel has “only started” its campaign in Gaza in an evening televised address. “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.” He claimed that tied-up children had been executed in the Hamas attack and that the group’s actions were on a par with Isis. Rockets also continue to be fired from Gaza into Israel.
Palestinian militant groups claimed to be holding more than 130 people abducted in Israel and dragged into Gaza. The military wing of Hamas threatened late on Monday to kill an Israeli civilian hostage any time Israel targets civilians in their homes in Gaza without warning.
The relatives of Britons they believe have been killed or abducted have shared their “indescribable pain” at the loss they feel.
Nathanel Young, 20, and Bernard Cowan, 57, are the only Britons confirmed to have died, but families of a number of Britons have said they believe their loved ones are dead or missing believed abducted.
Clockwise from top left, Dan Darlington with a friend, days before the Hamas attack; Bernard Cowan; Nathanel Young and Jack Marlowe— (Sourced)
Photographer Dan Darlington’s sister said he was murdered by militants alongside his close friend Carolin Bohl on Saturday. Originally from the UK but living in Berlin, Mr Darlington had been exploring the region and had been due to return to Tel Aviv on Friday, but stayed on an extra day. His family said he spent his last days “riding his bike, laughing, taking beautiful photos of sunsets and enjoying life’s simple pleasures”.
Taking to social media, his sister Shelley Darlington said: “My baby brother, Dan, was murdered by terrorists on Saturday morning on our kibbutz, Nir Oz, alongside his beautiful friend Carolin. Thanking friends and family for their support, she said: “Knowing how many people loved and cared for Danny, and reading your memories of him will never bring him back, but it does offer a slither of comfort to the indescribable pain I am feeling.”
The family of Mr Cowan, from Glasgow, said: “We are grieving the loss of our son and brother, Bernard Cowan, who was horrifically murdered on Saturday during the surprise terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas.
“We ask for privacy at this time while we process this huge loss to our family, both at home and in Israel, and to the Jewish community in Glasgow where he will be sorely missed.”
Mr Young, who was serving with the Israel Defense Forces, went to the same school – North London’s JFS Jewish School – as 26-year-old Jack Marlowe, who was providing security at a festival in the desert near Kibbutz Re’im when the area was attacked by Hamas.
Israelis inspect a damaged residential building after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip— (AP)
The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said in light of the surprise offensive orchestrated by Hamas, the UK was “reviewing” its support for Israel. Mr Cleverly also said he was “uncomfortable speculating” on the numbers of British people affected by the violence after it was reported that more than 10 Britons are feared dead or missing.
He said Israel’s “unique status” meant there were a large number of British-Israeli dual nationals, with government estimates suggesting about 50,000 to 60,000 Britons are believed to be in either Israel and Gaza.
Among them are the parents-in-law of Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf. The SNP leader said the parents of his wife, Nadia El-Nakla, are now “trapped” in Gaza, where they were visiting family when the strikes on Israel began.
British-Israeli Ahal Besorai, 60, says he last spoke to his sister Yonat, 50, at 7am on Saturday, when she was hiding in her bomb shelter on Kibbutz Be’eri near the border with Gaza. Together with her husband Dror, also 50, and their two children, two girls aged just 15 and 13, Yonat had tried to conceal herself from gunmen, who arrived in the community on the back of a jeep mounted with a large machine gun.
“She was whispering to me that they were in hiding, that there were terrorists all around and they shouldn’t speak, and she hung up,” Mr Besorai told The Independent. He later found out that 20 minutes after she hung up the militants set fire to the building forcing the family of four to come out.
“A member of the Kibbutz saw them being taken out of the house, they were alive,” continued Mr Besorai. They didn’t shoot them, so we assume they were taken to Gaza.”
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City— (AFP via Getty)
Since then he has had no contact. He now knows between 20 and 30 friends who were killed from this kibbutz alone. So far Yonat and her family have not been included in the list of the dead.
Dor Shafir, 30, whose mother Miryam was born and raised in the UK to a British father from Reading, is missing with his girlfriend, kindergarten teacher Savion Kiper, 31.
The couple, who were planning on marrying next year, were at a small music festival near to the border with Gaza when Hamas militants stormed into Israel. They ran for cover and sent a text message just before 7am on Saturday morning from nearby the village of Reim.
“They ran for their car and were trying to drive to get away, but no one knows what happened next,” Dor’s cousin Robin Simmons, an Irish citizen and lawyer, told The Independent.
The UK government is helping the families of several individuals in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Eleven US citizens have died in the conflict in Israel, US authorities said on Monday, and an unknown number remain missing, with reports that he told Joe Biden that he has no choice but to invade Gaza. “We have to go in. We can’t negotiate now,” Mr Netanyahu said on the call with the US president, according to Axios citing sources briefed on the call.
As for Gaza, Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said: “I ordered a full siege on the Gaza Strip,” he said in a terse statement shared on social media. “No power, no food, no gas, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.”
Exchanges of shelling on Israel's northern border raised worries that the conflict could spread to a new front. Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad group slipped from Lebanon into Israel, sparking Israeli shelling into southern Lebanon.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called on the UN to immediately intervene to prevent the occurrence of a humanitarian catastrophe due to the “ongoing Israeli aggression, especially in Gaza”, the official news agency Wafa reported.
Mahmoud Shalabi, acting director of UK-based Medical Aid for Palestinians charity, speaking from Gaza City, said that a “full siege would be catastrophic”.
Israel formally declared war on Sunday and the army called up around 300,000 reservists, signalling the bloodiest battle is ahead after the unprecedented assault by Hamas. Senior Israeli military officials told The Independent that due to the unprecedented nature of the attack, “all options are on the table” including possible ground assault into Gaza — a move not seen since 2005.
On the ground, Nizar, a father-of-five who lives in Beit Lahia in the north of Gaza and asked not to be fully named, said a ground invasion would be “our worst nightmare” for families.
“We have no shelter, no safe place to go. My house is already hosting two other families of relatives who fled from the border regions. We lost two children in the 2008 war, and have been displaced multiple times. Bombing is taking place every minute,” he said in desperation.
