US pledges support for Israel as Israel battles Hamas

Israel battled Hamas fighters still holed up in southern towns Monday and massed tens of thousands of troops near the Gaza Strip after vowing to defeat the Palestinian militant group whose surprise attack on the nation has likened to 9/11.

Stunned by the unprecedented assault on its territory, a grieving Israel has counted over 700 dead and launched a withering barrage of strikes on Gaza that have raised the death toll there above 430.

“We’re still fighting,” said military spokesman Richard Hecht as army forces battled holdout Hamas fighters for a third day in at least seven locations in southern communities near the coastal enclave.

“We thought by yesterday we would have full control,” he said as Israeli army reservists joined the fight to clear and evacuate southern towns and kibbutz communities. “I hope we will by the end of the day.”

Sirens blared and rockets and anti-missiles munitions streaked through the sky to the roar of fighter jets as plumes of black smoke rose above Gaza.

Palestinians in the crowded coastal territory of 2.3 million people braced for what many feared will be a massive Israeli ground attack aiming to defeat Hamas and liberate at least 100 hostages.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Gaza civilians to get away from all Hamas sites which he has vowed to turn “to rubble”.

Middle East tensions have spiked as Israel’s arch enemy Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah have praised the Hamas attack, although Tehran on Monday rejected any role in the military operation.

Hamas has called on “resistance fighters” in the occupied West Bank and in Arab and Islamic nations to join its “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”, launched half a century after the 1973 Arab-Israel war.

The United States has pledged “rock solid” support for Israel and said it would send munitions and military hardware to its key ally and divert an aircraft carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean.

AFP