Israeli troops massing on border for Gaza offensive where Hamas are getting through

Moment Israel launches air strikes on Islamic University in Gaza

The Middle East was on the brink of a nightmare escalation last night as Israel faced a possible war on three fronts – from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.

Stories of the gruesome Hamas massacres that triggered the worsening crisis were countered by fresh horror in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza where terrorists and civilians were being killed.

Even as Hezbollah threatened more strikes over the border from Lebanon into northern Israel, there were fresh fears Hamas fighters remain in the country ready to strike. And it is possible when Israeli troops launch a ground offensive into Gaza, Lebanon will also launch retaliatory strikes.

With twice as many rockets and missiles as Hamas, Hezbollah, which is directly supported by Iran, has guided weapons capable of hitting targets deep inside Israel.

But first Israel is trying to secure the breached Gaza border, with Hamas fighters still attempting and succeeding in getting through. Meanwhile, the US is set to send a second aircraft carrier to the tinderbox region where it could potentially confront Hezbollah.

Israeli troops oversee selfpropelled howitzer rounds at Gaza border (Image: Getty)

The decision drew the ire of Vladimir Putin yesterday, with the Russian leader claiming the arrival of USS Dwight Eisenhower in addition to the USS Gerald R Ford would stoke tensions in the eastern Mediterranean.

Both are massive warships and their escorts bristle with fighter jets, deadly weaponry, marines and special forces.

But this will offer little comfort to those struggling on the ground to withstand the unfolding war.

In the crowded Gaza Strip, governed by Hamas, Palestinians struggled to find any safe area yesterday, as Israeli strikes demolished entire neighbourhoods.

Hospitals ran low on supplies and the territory’s only power plant ran out of fuel, deepening the misery of a war sparked by the extremists’ deadly assaults which killed more than 1,200 people.

Yesterday’s air strikes smashed city blocks to rubble in the tiny coastal enclave with a population of two million and left unknown numbers of bodies beneath mounds of debris.

The bombardment raged on even though militants are holding an estimated 150 hostages – soldiers, men, women, children and older adults snatched from Israel during the weekend’s raids.

Israel has vowed unprecedented retaliation after Hamas fighters breached border fences on Saturday and shot hundreds of Israelis in homes, streets and at a music festival. They have continued to fire rockets at Israel, including a heavy barrage at the southern town of Ashkelon yesterday.

Ashdod too has come under fire, even Tel Aviv further north, in a conflict, which has already claimed at least 2,200 lives on both sides. The World Health Organisation said Gaza’s medical supplies, in seven hospitals, had already run out amid the flood of wounded.

Doctors Without Borders said surgical equipment, antibiotics, fuel and other supplies were running out at two hospitals it runs.

At one hospital Matthias Kannes, the group’s head of mission in Gaza, said: “We consumed three weeks’ worth of emergency stock in three days, partly due to 50 patients coming in at once.”

Israeli soldiers near the border (Image: Getty)

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Along the road to Ashdod hundreds of cars were parked, left hurriedly by Israeli reservists making themselves available for frontline duties and the ground offensive. It is likely to mean Gaza will be re-occupied, at least temporarily.

Hamas fighters taunted a British woman by sending photos of her elderly mother and brother being kidnapped – before murdering her other brother.

Ayelet Svatitzky was tormented by the images of her loved ones arriving with a chilling caption written by the gunmen “Hamas”. They showed her brother Nadav Popplewell sitting with their mother Channah Peri, 79, in her living room under armed guard.

The Popplewell family are from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, but have lived in Israel for years. Their homes on kibbutz Nirim, a mile from Gaza, were stormed by the militants at the weekend.

Ayelet, 46, said: “That was the last I heard of them. My neighbour looked outside the window and saw my mum being taken out. Then my 54-year-old brother Roi, who lives in a different neighbourhood, was found. He was shot dead behind his house.”

The Popplewell brothers are thought to be among at least 17 Britons feared dead or captured. Ayelet added: ‘We are frantic. My mum and brother were taken. They are both diabetics and I don’t know what will become of my mum without her insulin.”

Defence minister Yoav Gallant said: “We will not allow a reality in which Israeli children are murdered. We will eliminate anyone who fights us and use every measure at our disposal.”

And Chuck Freilich, a former deputy national security adviser in Israel, warned: “The objective is for this war to end very differently from all previous rounds. Whatever has to be done to fundamentally change the situation will have to be done.”

Meanwhile, exchanges of fire over northern borders with militants in Lebanon and Syria flag the risk of an expanded conflict to a third front. US President Joe Biden has warned other countries and groups not to enter the war.

Israeli military say more than 1,200 people, including 155 soldiers, have been killed in the country this week, a toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria that lasted weeks. While in Gaza, the death toll so far stands at 1,055, say the authorities there.

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