Hundreds of children and women have been killed in Gaza following days of Israeli airstrikes, say Palestinian officials.

At least 447 children and 248 women were among the estimated 1,417 people who have died in the bombardment, according to the health ministry, adding more than 6,000 have been injured.

Israel has said it is targeting Hamas after the militant group carried out a wave of attacks in Israel at the weekend as gunmen stormed the border and killed hundreds in their homes as well as 260 others at a music festival.

Israel says a total of 1,300 of its people have died since Saturday’s raid as its troops continue to mass along the barbed wire fence ahead of a possible ground offensive on Gaza, with 300,000 reservists called up.

Among today’s key developments:

• UN warns of ‘dire situation’ in Gaza Strip
• Palestinians accuse Israel of killing civilians
• Israeli PM says Hamas beheaded soldiers and raped women
• Israeli military admits it failed to protect its citizens in Hamas attack
• US secretary of state pledges support for Israel in Netanyahu meeting

Israel ‘strikes Syrian airports’ – follow live conflict updates

Hamas said 18 Palestinians died in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in the heart of Gaza following one of the latest Israeli retaliatory raids.

Some 340,000 Palestinians have fled their homes seeking refuge in schools, according to the United Nations.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned crucial supplies were running dangerously low in the Gaza Strip after Israel imposed a total blockade on the territory.

“It’s a dire situation in the Gaza Strip that we’re seeing evolve with food and water being in limited supply and quickly running out,” said Brian Lander, the deputy head of emergencies at WFP.

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Israel has insisted it is giving prior warning of its strikes, though they are now hitting entire neighbourhoods as opposed to individual buildings.

Meanwhile, the chief of staff for Israel’s military, Herzi Halevi, admitted it failed to protect its civilians from Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Saturday.

“The IDF is responsible for the security of the country and its citizens, and on Saturday morning in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, we did not,” Mr Halevi said. “We will learn, we will investigate, but now is the time for war.”

The overnight retaliatory strikes targeted Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces, including command centres used by the fighters who attacked Israel, and the home of a senior Hamas operative where unspecified weapons were stored, the Israeli military said.

Elsewhere, Israeli airstrikes have struck the international airports of the Syrian capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, damaging their runways and putting them out of service, said Syrian state media.

An unnamed military official was quoted by the state news agency Sana as saying no one was hurt in the attacks. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Israel’s siege of Gaza has left Palestinians stricken as supplies of food, water, electricity and medicine have dwindled.

The death toll in Gaza is expected to rise as 650,000 people have been affected by the shortages, and hospitals are on the verge of collapse with diminishing power supplies.

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IDF troops assemble

Troops from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are building up near the Gaza border as an imminent invasion is possible – though no political decision on this has yet been announced, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said.

Israel has also evacuated tens of thousands of residents from nearby communities.

Should the ground offensive go ahead it would be the first since the 50-day Gaza war in 2014, which left thousands of Palestinians and dozens of IDF troops dead.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “crush and destroy” Hamas, after a coalition with centre-right political opponent Benny Gantz.

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“Every Hamas member is a dead man,” Mr Netanyahu said in a televised address. He has also called Hamas an “enemy of civilisation”.

Israel estimates 1,500 Hamas militants have been killed on its soil following their infiltration of the border.

The IDF, which along with Western powers, considers Hamas as “terrorists”.

Mr Netanyahu said that militants beheaded soldiers and raped women in its attack on Saturday.

Hamas is also believed to be holding around 150 hostages in Gaza, including soldiers, men, women, children and older adults, since the surprise weekend raid.

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Read more:
Where are the main borders to the Gaza Strip – and can Palestinians leave?
Airlines scramble to get citizens out of Israel
Families of hostages issue plea to help those who can ‘still be saved’

Israel’s energy minister, Israel Katz, said the blockade would remain until the captives were released.

“Not a single electricity switch will be flipped on, not a single faucet will be turned on, and not a single fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” he said on social media.

The US has stepped in by sending Israel a team of technical experts to assist with the recovery as it believes some of the captives are Americans.

In a pledge of unwavering support, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Mr Netanyahu in Tel Aviv today, saying America would “always be there by [Israel’s] side”.

“You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourselves, but as long as America exists you will never have to,” Mr Blinken said.

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