Israel’s military said it was preparing a merciless attack to eliminate Hamas, but former US President Barack Obama had warned that any military strategy from Israel that ignores human cost will eventually backfire.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the death toll in Gaza had surpassed 5,000 in two weeks following Israeli airstrikes in response to a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 that killed more than 1,400 people.
Israel began air strikes on hundreds of targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday as soldiers battled Hamas militants in attacks on the besieged Palestinian enclaves, where civilians are in dire straits.
Hamas on Monday released more than two elderly Israeli women held hostage during its terror campaign in the October 7 attack.
They were the third and fourth hostages to be released.
Israel’s chief of army staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said in a statement that Israel had no intention of stopping its attacks on the densely populated Gaza Strip and suggested that it was well prepared for a ground attack.
“We want to bring Hamas to a state of full dismantling,” Halevi said late Monday. “The path is a path of unrelenting attacks, damaging Hamas everywhere and in every way.
“We are well prepared for the ground operations in the south,” he added, referring to southern Israel, which abuts Gaza. “Troops who have more time are better prepared, and that is what we are doing now.”
The United States has emphasized Israel’s right to self-defense, but the White House, Pentagon and State Department have individually urged caution in negotiations with Israel, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The top priority for the US is to buy time to negotiate the release of other hostages, according to the sources who spoke before the hostages were released on Monday.
US President Joe Biden answered a question about the possibility of a ceasefire: “We should have those hostages released and then we can talk.”
In a rare comment by a former US president on a foreign policy crisis, Obama issued a written statement warning Israel that a crackdown on Hamas would result in heavy civilian casualties and alienate the Palestinians for generations.
“Any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire. Already, thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the bombing of Gaza, many of them children. Hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes,” Obama said in a statement posted on social media.
It was not immediately clear whether Obama coordinated the announcement with Biden, his former vice president.
“The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis,” he added.
“It could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region,” Obama said in a publishef statement.
He condemned the Hamas attack and reiterated his support for Israel’s right to self-defense.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to attend a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday, but it is unclear what action the council will take as the five veto powers appear divided.
Israel’s bombing of Gaza has caused China and Russia to lose their reputation as champions of the developing world, in contrast to the US which has staunchly supported Israel.
All three major powers have veto power on the council.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday that shelling had killed 436 people in the past 24 hours, most of them south of the coastal zone, where Israeli troops and tanks could launch a ground invasion.
The Israeli military said it struck more than 320 targets in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, including tunnels housing Hamas fighters, dozens of command and control posts, and mortar and anti-tank missile launchers.
The Israeli military struck Hamas targets in the Al Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Monday night, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said.
The Health Ministry said at least 5,087 Palestinians, including 2,055 children, had been killed in the two-week strike.
European leaders are calling for a “humanitarian cessation” of hostilities to allow support from the United Nations and Arab countries as 2.3 million people in Gaza lack basic services.
On Monday, a convoy of humanitarian trucks delivered water, food and medicine to Gaza.
This is the third since relief supplies began arriving on Saturday. But the United Nations said no fuel had been added and stocks would run out in two days.
The United Nations says desperate Gazans have nowhere to seek refuge from brutal airstrikes that have devastated parts of the Hamas-run enclave.
