Israel to press on in Gaza, despite attack
Israel launched dozens of air strikes on Gaza overnight, Hamas said yesterday, as the army said it will not be distracted from the war after Iran's unprecedented attack heightened fears of wider conflict.
World powers have urged restraint after Iran late on Saturday launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, though the Israeli military has said the vast majority were intercepted.
Tehran's first direct assault on Israel, in retaliation for a deadly strike in Damascus earlier this month, followed months of violence across the region involving Iranian proxies who say they act in support of Palestinians in the war-battered Gaza Strip.
"Even while under attack from Iran, we have not lost sight, not for one moment, of our critical mission in Gaza to rescue our hostages from the hands of Iran's proxy Hamas," Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said late on Sunday.
As mediators eye a deal to halt the fighting, triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack, fears grew over Israeli plans to send troops into Rafah, a far-southern city where the majority of Gaza's 2.4 million people have taken refuge.
"Hamas is still holding our hostages in Gaza," Hagari said of the roughly 130 people, including 34 presumed dead, who Israel says remain in the hands of Palestinian militants since the Hamas attack.
"We also have hostages in Rafah, and we will do everything we can to bring them back home," the military spokesman told a briefing.
The army said it was "calling up approximately two reserve brigades for operational activities on the Gazan front", about a week after withdrawing most ground troops from the territory.
The Hamas government media office said Israeli aircraft launched "dozens" of strikes overnight on central Gaza.
Rumours of a reopened Israeli checkpoint on the coastal road from the besieged territory's south to Gaza City send thousands of Palestinians heading north on Sunday, despite Israel denying it was open.
An AFP journalist saw mothers holding their children's hands and families piling onto donkey carts with their luggage as they made the journey.
Hoping to reunite with his wife who has been in the southern city of Khan Yunis, Palestinian man Mahmoud Awdeh said, "she told me over the phone that people are leaving... she's waiting at the checkpoint until the army agrees to let her head to the north".
The Israeli army however said that reports the route was open were "not true".
Retaliation fears
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday following the Iranian attack, where Israel pressed for new sanctions against Tehran and Secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned the region was "on the brink" of war.
"Neither the region nor the world can afford more war," the UN chief said.
"Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate."
Iran's UN envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, insisted the Islamic republic was exercising its "inherent right to self-defence" to respond to the April 1 strike on Terhan's consular building in Damascus which has been widely attributed to Israel.
He insisted Iran did "not seek escalation or war".
In his briefing, Hagari said Israel was "still on high alert and assessing the situation".
G7 leaders also condemned Iran's attack and called for "restraint" on all sides, European Council President Charles Michel wrote on X after a video conference on Sunday.
"Ending the crisis in Gaza as soon as possible, notably through an immediate ceasefire, will make a difference," he said.
Israel's top ally the United States also urged caution and calm.
"We don't want to see this escalate," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told NBC.
After the attack, Joe Biden reaffirmed the United States' "ironclad" support for Israel, but a senior US official said the president had also told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington would not offer military support for any retaliation on Iran.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday cautioned Israel against a "reckless" retaliation, warning it would spark "a decisive and much stronger response".
Word of the impending attack prompted Israel to close schools and announce restrictions on public gatherings, with the army saying early yesterday that those measures were being lifted for most of the country.