Israel launches 10,000th airstrike in Gaza, 700 people reported killed in past 24 hours

Israel on Sunday unleashed its 10,000th airstrike in Gaza since the war began Oct. 7, with at least 700 Palestinians reportedly killed in the past 24 hours alone as the war heats up again post-cease-fire.

“Hell on Earth has returned to Gaza,” said Jens Laerke, a rep for the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The Israel Defense Forces said that since Israel’s ground invasion into northern Gaza began in early October, it has launched 10,000 airstrikes at the Palestinian-controlled area, with the bombardments intensifying over the weekend after Israel and Hamas failed to reach a deal that would have seen all the female hostages kidnapped by the terrorist group freed.

Israel said more than 400 targets in northern Gaza have been struck since Friday, with the Hamas-run Ministry of Health stating that at least 700 people have been killed in the renewed bombings, one of the highest daily death tolls recorded since the war began.

As of Sunday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health estimates that more than 15,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed as a result of the war.

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy told reporters Sunday that while he agreed that “far too many people have been killed in this war,” the blame for the deaths lies solely with Hamas thanks to its Oct. 7 sneak attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel.

“The Israeli army has made every effort upholding our obligations under international law to get civilians out of harm’s way,” he said.

OCHA estimates that about 1.8 million people in Gaza, nearly 80%, have been displaced by the violence.

While hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have evacuated to southern Gaza since the fighting began, Israel said it launched an “extensive attack” on Saturday in the region’s city of Khan Younis, which had become a hub for the refugees and wounded. Israel has said it warns civilians to flee areas before it bombs them.

A Jewish soldier was killed in Saturday’s fighting, with another dying from injuries sustained three weeks ago as the military encroached further into the Palestinian enclave, the IDF said.

A total of 66 Jewish soldiers have died since the ground incursion began last month, according to the IDF.

With the war entering its ninth week, the Israeli military also confirmed that it has destroyed at least 500 of the 800 tunnel shafts that it has found throughout northern Gaza, including many ”near or inside kindergartens, schools, playgrounds and mosques.

“To be clear, these places aren’t childproof, but rather teeming with terrorism,” the IDF wrote on X on Sunday above video footage of some of the tunnel entrances. “Every tunnel shaft and weapon we find is further proof of how Hamas deliberately uses the residents of Gaza for their terrorist agenda against Israelis.”

The shafts lead to the estimated 300-mile-long underground tunnel systems that the terrorist group uses to operate beneath Gaza, Israel has said.

“Some of the tunnel shafts connected Hamas’ strategic assets via the underground tunnel network. In addition, many miles of the tunnel routes have been destroyed,” the IDF said.  

The Israeli military previously released chilling footage of tunnel shafts and corridors located beneath a mosque and the al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in Gaza City.

“These findings are further proof of the cynical use that the Hamas terror organization makes of the civilian population as a human shield, and as a cover for its terror activity,” the IDF said.

As the fighting intensifies, the fate of the estimated 137 people still held captive by Hamas in Gaza remains up in the air.

“We will do everything to bring back everyone,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night, crediting military pressure for the release of more than 100 hostages during the truce agreement.

While contending with the renewed fighting in Gaza, the Jewish state is also focusing on protecting its borders after Hezbollah terrorists launched an anti-tank guided missile Sunday, injuring several IDF soldiers, the Times of Israel reports.

Rocket attacks coming from Lebanon triggered sirens in northern Israel, with the IDF retaliating with airstrikes against several Hezbollah sites.

The Iranian-backed terrorist group has continued to launch missile strikes against Israel as a form of solidarity with Hamas.