The ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel has reached a new level of intensity, as Israel launched a massive military operation against the Gaza Strip, killing more than 500 Palestinian civilians, including 78 children, and injuring about 2,900 others. The health authorities in Gaza said that the Israeli air strikes targeted residential buildings and infrastructure, forcing more than 120,000 people to flee their homes. The Israeli army claimed that it hit over 500 strategic sites of Palestinian factions in Gaza, and imposed a total blockade on the coastal enclave, cutting off electricity, food, and fuel supplies. The Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant described the Palestinians as "human animals" and said that Israel was acting accordingly. Meanwhile, fierce clashes continued between the fighters of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Israeli forces in several locations inside and around the Gaza Strip, for the third consecutive day. Hamas said that it had killed or captured hundreds of Israeli soldiers and settlers and that it had also executed four Israeli prisoners in retaliation for the Israeli bombing of Gaza. The Israeli army admitted that it was facing a large number of casualties and hostages and that it had summoned 300,000 reserve soldiers to join the battle. Hamas also announced that it had developed a new air defense system called "Mutabar 1", which it used to shoot down two F-16 jets over the Mediterranean Sea, 35 kilometers away from Gaza. The Israeli Air Force confirmed that it had lost two of its planes. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, condemned the Israeli aggression and called for an immediate end to the violence. She said that the root cause of the conflict was the prolonged Israeli military occupation of Palestine, which had been ignored by many official statements and media outlets. In addition to the Gaza front, Israel also faced attacks from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which fired 12 rockets from southern Lebanon toward northern Israel. The Israeli army said that it had detected some "suspects" who had infiltrated from Lebanon into Israel and that it had deployed its forces in the area. Early on Saturday, Hamas surprised the Israeli occupation as dozens of militants stormed the borders between the Gaza Strip and the Israeli settlements in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. The operation came after the repeated storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by Israeli settlers in recent days and the murder of several Palestinians by Israeli forces. Hama's operation came in the commemoration of the 50 years of the Egyptian victory over Israel on the 6th of October 1973.
