Over 187,000 flee their home in Gaza as Israeli reprisals kill close to 700

The Israeli military said it had regained “full control” of the separation wall that was breached on multiple fronts by the Palestinian group, Hamas.

The Israeli Defence Forces said said nobody had infiltrated the 40-km wall over the last 24 hours, but did not discount the possibility that some Hamas fighters are within the Israeli-controlled areas.

Over 20 points of the separation wall were breached when Hamas launched a surprise deadly attack on Saturday 7 October, launching rockets in the air at Israel and carrying out an incursion using paragliders. Militants also kidnapped revellers in a South Israel music festival.

The IDF said soldiers are now mining the gaps in the wall to prevent fighters from crossing.

The wall is considered by Israelis as a security barrier, but is seen by Palestinians as a symbol of apartheid and oppression of people living in Gaza.

The Israeli military is planning to send out officers to inform over 100 families that their relatives are being held captive by Hamas in Gaza. The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said the number of hostages held by Hamas is estimated to be between 100 and 150 people.

As hostilities enter their fourth day, Israel continued its relentless bombardment of Gaza throughout the night, hitting residential buildings and killing at least two Palestinian journalists.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza has called for the opening of a “safe corridor to ensure the entry of urgent medical aid” into the territory’s hospitals, which are now overwhelmed with the dead and wounded.

Israeli forces targeted four ambulances east of the city of Khan Younis overnight, with the bombing of the city of Beit Hanoun putting its only hospital out of service.

“There continues to be a lack of electricity to operate the health care system. This threatens the lives of all sick and injured people,” the health ministry said in separate statement.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said the death toll from Israeli air attacks on the territory has risen to 704, including 143 children and 105 women. The attacks have wounded some 4,000 other Palestinians.

The death toll now stands at 687 Palestinians in Gaza, more than 900 people in Israel, at least 17 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and four Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

The UN humanitarian agency said more than 187,518 Palestinians have fled their homes in Gaza, with more than 137,000 taking shelter in some 84 schools.

Foreign nationals from countries including Argentina, Cambodia and the United States were among those reported killed in Israel.