Following the deadliest assault on Israel in half a century, the country is vowing to crush Hamas, and both sides are bracing for an escalating war.
After the deadliest assault on Israel in 50 years, the right-wing government and members of the centrist opposition formed a unity government on Wednesday to navigate the crisis, while its warplanes rained destruction on the Gaza Strip and both sides braced for an escalating war between Israel and Hamas.
The creation of an emergency government came as the devastation of the Hamas incursion that overran dozens of towns and a military base last weekend became clearer: civilians, including children, shot dead in homes, in cars, on streets and in hiding places, with bodies still being recovered and counted. The Israeli government said the toll in the attack had risen to 1,200 people killed, 169 of them Israeli soldiers, almost 3,000 others wounded and an estimated 150 people believed kidnapped and held hostage in Gaza.
Israel’s military forces are carrying out a more intense campaign of airstrikes than in past conflicts with Gaza against Hamas, the group that controls the region, and its allies, killing at least 1,127 people and injuring more than 5,300, according to Gazan health officials, who say most of the casualties are noncombatants, including children.
After Israel escalated its 16-year blockade of Gaza to a “complete siege” this week, cutting off fuel, water and food, electricity to the region shut down on Wednesday, and hospitals, already overwhelmed, reported that they would soon be unable to function.
Hamas has threatened to kill hostages if Israel strikes civilian homes without warning.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised news conference Wednesday night that the Palestinians who surged into Israel shot children in the head, burned people alive, raped women and beheaded soldiers.
“Every Hamas member is a dead man,” Mr. Netanyahu said. Equating Hamas to the Islamic State, he added, “It will be crushed and eliminated.”
President Biden, speaking to reporters in Washington after meeting with Jewish leaders, appeared to back reports of a particularly gruesome atrocity — one that the Israeli authorities have not verified. “I never really thought that I would see it and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children,” he said.
Administration officials said later that the president did not actually see any images of beheaded children but was basing his comments on a variety of news reports. The White House cited five examples from CBS News and Israeli outlets quoting Israeli military officers asserting that children had been beheaded.
The Israeli government has called up 360,000 reservists, an immense increase in military forces, amid widespread speculation that it will launch a large-scale ground offensive into Gaza, its first since 2014. At the same time, skirmishing and artillery fire on Israel’s northern border continued on Wednesday, fueling fears of a major clash with the Lebanese group Hezbollah — a far more powerful enemy than Hamas — and a two-front war.
Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whose country has long joined Israel in blockading Gaza, said it would not allow Gazans to flee to its territory.
The deal for an Israeli unity government, between Mr. Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, the leader of an opposition party, creates an emergency “war management cabinet” composed of the two of them and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Decision-making will largely remain in the hands of the broader security cabinet, according to a spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu’s party, Likud.
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Hiba Yazbek and Patrick Kingsley reported from Jerusalem, and Nicholas Casey from Madrid. Reporting was contributed by Raja Abdulrahim and Aaron Boxerman from Jerusalem; Gabby Sobelman from Rehovot, Israel; Euan Ward from Beirut, Lebanon; Nadav Gavrielov from New York; Sui-Lee Wee from Bangkok; Jin Yu Young from Seoul; Aurelien Breeden from Paris; Iyad Abuheweila from Cairo; and Peter Baker, Katie Rogers and Edward Wong from Washington.
Hiba Yazbek reports for The Times from Jerusalem, covering Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Nicholas Casey is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine. He has spent a decade as a foreign correspondent in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East and wrote about national politics during the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign.
Patrick Kingsley is the Jerusalem bureau chief, covering Israel and the occupied territories. He has reported from more than 40 countries, written two books and previously covered migration and the Middle East for The Guardian.
A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 12, 2023, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Israel Assembles a Unity Coalition to Steer The War. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Palestinians inspecting damage on Wednesday after overnight Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younes, in the southern Gaza Strip. Credit...Yousef Masoud for The New York Times.
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