The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas has warned that it will kill an Israeli hostage every time Israel’s military bombs civilian targets in the Gaza Strip without warning. 

Abu Obeida, the spokesman of the Qassam Brigades, said that the past hours have witnessed intense strikes by Israel on civilian areas in which homes were destroyed over people’s heads. 

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“We have decided to put an end to this and as of now and we declare that any targeting of our people in their homes without prior warning will be regrettably faced with the execution of one the hostages of civilians we are holding,” he said. 

A photo held during the Jewish Community Vigil for Israel in London shows one of the people taken hostage by Hamas fighters. Photo / AP 

It comes as Israel’s military ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip, halting deliveries of food, fuel and supplies to its 2.3 million people as it pounded the Hamas-ruled territory with waves of airstrikes in retaliation for the militants’ bloody weekend incursion. 

More than two days after Hamas launched its surprise attack, the Israeli military said it had largely gained control in its southern towns where it had been battling Hamas gunmen. Israel’s vaunted military and intelligence apparatus was caught completely off guard by Hamas, resulting in heavy battles in its streets for the first time in decades. 

Israeli tanks and drones were deployed to guard breaches in the Gaza border fence to prevent new incursions. Thousands of Israelis were evacuated from more than a dozen towns near Gaza, and the military summoned 300,000 reservists — a massive mobilisation in a short time. 

The moves, along with Israel’s formal declaration of war on Sunday, pointed to Israel increasingly shifting to the offensive against Hamas, threatening greater destruction in the densely populated, impoverished Gaza Strip. 

• "In a state of shock and pain": Civilians caught up in Israel-Hamas conflict
• Death toll rises, Hamas threatens hostages

A major question remains whether Israel will launch a ground assault into the tiny Mediterranean coastal territory, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties. 

Israeli soldiers take position near the Israeli Gaza border in southern Israel. Photo / AP 

Israel and Hamas have had repeated conflicts in past years, often sparked by tensions around a Jerusalem holy site. This time, the context has become potentially more explosive, and both sides talk of shattering with violence a years-long Israeli-Palestinian deadlock left by the moribund peace process. 

Israel has been stunned by a surprise attack and death toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria. That is fomenting calls to crush Hamas no matter the cost, rather than continuing to try to bottle it up in Gaza. Israel is run by its most hard-right government ever, dominated by ministers who adamantly reject any Palestinians statehood. 

Hamas, in turn, says it is ready for a long battle to end an Israeli occupation it says is no longer tolerable. Desperation has grown among Palestinians, many of whom see nothing to lose under unending Israeli control and increasing settler depredations in the West Bank, the blockade in Gaza and what they see as the world’s apathy. 

“I ask you to stand firm because we are going to change the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told authorities this week. “I know you have been through terrible and difficult things. What Hamas will go through will be difficult and terrible … we have only just begun.” 

As Israel hit more than 1000 targets in Gaza, Palestinian militants continued firing barrages of rockets, setting off air raid sirens in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. 

Smoke rises after the Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip. Photo / AP 

Around 700 people, including 73 soldiers, have been killed in Israel, according to Israeli media outlets, citing rescue service — a staggering toll by the scale of its recent conflicts. The Gaza Health Ministry said 493 people, including 78 children and 41 women, were killed in the territory. Thousands have been wounded on both sides. 

Palestinian militant groups claimed to be holding more than 130 people abducted in Israel and dragged into Gaza. The armed wing of Hamas claimed on its Telegram channel that four of them were killed in Israeli airstrikes. That could not be independently confirmed. 

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza, saying authorities would cut electricity and block the entry of food and fuel. 

Gallant said Israel was at war with “human animals”, using the kind of dehumanising language often employed by both sides at times of soaring tensions. 

Israel and Egypt have imposed a blockade on Gaza of varying strictness since Hamas seized power in 2007. In recent years Israel has provided limited electricity and allowed the import of food, fuel and some consumer goods, while heavily restricting travel in and out. 

The Israeli seal will leave Gaza almost entirely dependent on its crossing into neighbouring Egypt at Rafah, where cargo capacities are lower than other crossings into Israel. 

An Egyptian military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the press, said more than two tons of medical supplies from the Egyptian Red Crescent were sent to Gaza and efforts were underway to organise food, and other deliveries, but the question of allowing in fuel was not yet decided. 

Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that Israeli bombardment was moving from district to district to destroy houses and buildings Israel says are being used by Hamas. Israel is planning to hit thousands of targets, he said. He said “hundreds” of Hamas militants were buried under rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel in the past 48 hours. His claims of the numbers – and his characterisation of the dead as Hamas – could not be confirmed. 

The UN said more than 123,000 people have fled their homes in Gaza – many after Israeli warnings of imminent bombardment. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said a school sheltering more than 225 people took a direct hit. It did not say where the fire came from. 

Palestinians inspect the rubble Abu Helal family in Rafah refugee camp in Gaza Strip. Photo / AP 

In the past Israel has agreed to lopsided exchange deals with Hamas in which it released large numbers of prisoners for individual captives or even the remains of soldiers. 

Among the captives from the weekend’s incursion by Hamas are soldiers and civilians, including women, children and older adults, mostly Israelis but also some people of other nationalities. Egypt’s state-run Al-Ahram newspaper said that Egyptian officials are trying to mediate a release of Palestinian women in Israel’s prisons in exchange for Israeli women captured by militants. 

Mayyan Zin, a divorced mother of two, said she learned that her two daughters had been abducted when a relative sent her photos from a Telegram group showing them sitting on mattresses in captivity. She then found online videos of a chilling scene in her ex-husband’s home: Gunmen who had broken in speak to him near the two weeping daughters, Dafna, 15, and Ella, 8. Another video showed the father being taken into Gaza. 

“Just bring my daughters home and to their family. All the people,” Zin said. 

Hamas has ruled Gaza since driving out forces loyal to the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority in 2007 and its rule has gone unchallenged through the blockade and four previous wars with Israel. 

After breaking through Israeli barriers with explosives at daybreak Saturday, an estimated 1000 Hamas gunmen rampaged for hours, gunning down civilians and snatching people in towns, along highways and at a techno music festival attended by thousands in the desert. Palestinian militants have also launched around 4400 rockets at Israel, according to the military. 

On Sunday, the US dispatched an aircraft carrier strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel, and said it would send additional military aid. 

-Josef Federman and Issam Adwan, AP