New Delhi: As the Israel-Gaza conflict enters its fifth day, the scenes of violence, death, and destruction continue to emerge from the Gaza City. The conflict began on Saturday morning after Hamas, in a surprise assault, fired 5,000 rockets into Israel and initiated a coordinated attack on the Jewish state from air, land, and sea.
In response, Israel declared war on Hamas and has been bombarding Gaza since then.
News agency ANI shared visuals of the Gaza skyline shrouded in smoke as rockets were launched into Israel and Israel bombarded Gaza following Hamas' surprise attack.
On Tuesday, following a night of intense bombardment, residents were struggling to grasp the sheer scale of damage inflicted on Gaza City’s upscale Rimal neighborhood, with its shopping malls, restaurants, residential buildings, and offices belonging to aid groups and international media far from the territory’s hard-hit border towns and impoverished refugee camps.
The Israeli military claimed on Tuesday that it had retrieved the bodies of 1,500 Hamas fighters on its territory. The conflict has led to a substantial loss of life, with over 3,000 people killed on both sides.
According to media reports, Hamas currently holds approximately 150 hostages, including children and a Holocaust survivor, and has issued a chilling ultimatum, promising to execute a hostage for every Israeli bomb dropped on a civilian residence in the Gaza Strip without warning.
Following Israel's imposition of a blockade on the Gaza Strip, which cut off essential utilities like electricity and water, as well as preventing the entry of food and fuel into the densely populated area of 2.3 million people, Hamas issued this chilling warning.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has compared Hamas to ISIS and stated that Israel's actions mark the start of a long-term effort to eliminate the group and bring about change in the Middle East.
"Hamas terrorists bound, burned, and executed children. They are savages. Hamas is ISIS," Netanyahu declared.