Israel attacks 400 targets in 24 hours as it seeks to 'dismantle' Hamas

Dozens of Hamas fighters, including three deputy battalion commanders, are reported to have been killed

Israel intensified its military onslaught against Hamas attacking more than 400 targets in Gaza in 24 hours. Dozens of Hamas fighters, including three deputy battalion commanders, were reported to have been killed.

But the Ramallah-based Palestinian foreign ministry said more than 120 Palestinians were killed in recent Israeli air strikes reported to have hit homes in Gaza.

Israeli chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi suggested Israel had no intention of curbing its attacks, with latest targets said to include a tunnel allowing Hamas to infiltrate Israel and Hamas command centres in mosques.

“We want to bring Hamas to a state of full dismantling. We are well prepared for the ground operations in the south,” he said, with tanks massed on the border with Gaza.

Palestinian health chiefs said the Gaza death toll had soared above 5,000 in two weeks of Israeli air strikes. This figure is understood to include 500 people reportedly killed at the al-Ahli Arab hospital which the UK has followed the US in blaming on a rocket fired from Gaza rather than an Israeli air strike. US officials estimate between 100 to 300 died in the hospital blast.

Israeli defence chiefs on Monday showed journalists footage from bodycams worn by Hamas terrorists, CCTV and phones of some of the massacres of families in Israel.

In one clip, a Hamas gunman is filmed throwing a grenade into a shelter in a kibbutz, killing a father and injuring his young sons who rush back into their home, with one crying “daddy is dead”. The killer opens the fridge and takes a drink before walking away. One boy appears blinded.

“The Israelis are determined this element of the overall situation, which started this current round of fighting and killing, is the responsibility of Hamas and we are not going to be allowed to forget that and indeed nor we should,” Lord Dannatt, former head of the British army, told Times Radio.

He predicted a “probably inevitable ground invasion” and warned Israel risks losing public support if its attacks on Gaza are seen as indiscriminate and the civilian death toll continues to rise sharply, amid fears of a wider conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah attacking from Lebanon.

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