The Israeli death toll after the surprise attack by the militant group Hamas on communities in the country's south has risen to at least 600, according to multiple media outlets, as the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel was embarking on a "long and difficult war”.
On Sunday the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, described the Hamas assault as an "indiscriminate terrorist attack" by a "terrorist organization", while adding that Washington had not seen any evidence that Iran was behind it.
With hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis killed in the fighting and thousands more wounded, it emerged that as many as 100 Israeli citizens, including women and children, may have been abducted by Hamas to Gaza.
As Israel's security cabinet signed off on a wide-ranging authorization for military action, Israelis struggled to comprehend the scale of Saturday's attack, and the likelihood of a ground invasion of Gaza and a wider conflagration with Hezbollah in Lebanon loomed large.
In a televised address on Saturday night, Netanyahu said the Israeli military would use all of its strength to destroy Hamas's capabilities in response.
"Get out of there now," he told people in Gaza, who have no way to leave the tiny, overcrowded Mediterranean territory.
The number of Israeli dead climbed sharply on Sunday as Israeli forces secured areas that had been briefly seized by Hamas in the country's south, and emergency workers uncovered scores of bodies, the majority reportedly civilians.
The list of the dead represented every corner of Israeli society including a commando general, a former Israeli international football player, partygoers, and whole families including women and children.
As Israel struck 426 targets in Gaza, the official toll of Palestinians killed there rose to 370 including 20 children, with close to 2,000 people wounded.
At a UN-run school in Gaza City's north-western Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, residents described overnight Israeli strikes that hit the school's courtyard, causing panic and light injuries among those sheltering there.
At another school serving as a shelter in central Gaza City, people were piling up blankets and food in the three-storey building. New arrivals brought in mattresses, packing their children into small and crowded classrooms.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
