The death toll continues to rise in Israel’s war with Hamas as more grisly details of the latter’s assault on southern Israel keep emerging.
Since Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack, unleashing thousands of rockets and dispatching roughly 1,500 terrorists across the border, at least 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals have been confirmed killed by the Islamist group, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Retaliatory airstrikes on the part of Israel have reportedly killed more than 1,100 people in the Gaza Strip, which Hamas controls, according to CBS News.
On Wednesday, Tal Heinrich, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, purportedly confirmed reports of dozens of babies and toddlers at the Kfar Aza kibbutz who had been discovered killed, some with their heads cut off, according to The Messenger News.
Hamas, however, called the reports of attacks on Israeli children “false,” according to CNN.
“The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas has strongly dismissed the false claims promoted by some Western media outlets, such as Palestinian freedom fighters killing children and targeting civilians,” the group wrote in a post on its Telegram channel, per CNN.
According to the New York Post, President Joe Biden acknowledged Hamas’ killing of children at the White House, saying, “I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.”
Hamas also took more than 100 hostages and is currently holding them in Gaza, some of whom include U.S. citizens, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 22 Americans have been confirmed killed in the attack, and 17 remain unaccounted for, according to National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
“We need to steel ourselves for the very distinct possibility these numbers will keep increasing,” said Kirby, per CBS News.
An updated travel advisory by the U.S. Department of State advised Americans to reconsider travel to Israel.
“Terrorist groups, lone-actor terrorists, and other violent extremists continue plotting possible attacks in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza. Terrorists and violent extremists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and local government facilities,” it reads.
While some world leaders have called for an immediate ceasefire, Israeli military forces have amassed at the country’s southern border with Gaza.
“Every Hamas member is a dead man,” said Netanyahu in a televised address, vowing to “crush and destroy” the terrorist organization, according to the Associated Press. Israel has intensified its blockade of the Gaza Strip, stopping the entry of fuel, medicine, and other goods into the territory.
