Eko Hot Blog reports that more than 600 people have been killed in Israel since Hamas militants launched their surprise attack on Saturday.
Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer told CNN on Sunday that the death toll is expected to rise further.
“We are well north of 600 people who have been killed. There will probably be more — hundreds, several hundred more,” Dermer said.
More than 2,000 people are wounded, according to officials.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the conflict, at least 370 Palestinians have been killed and 2,200 others wounded in Gaza since Saturday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israel formally declared war on Hamas Sunday, after the group’s devastating surprise attack the day prior, setting the stage for a massive military response.
Israel has been pounding Gaza with airstrikes.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said on Sunday that Israeli troops have killed hundreds of Hamas fighters, wounded thousands and captured scores of others.
The country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed support for Israel on Sunday.
Netanyahu said the European heads of state “expressed unreserved support for Israel’s right to defend itself as necessary,” according to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Hamas claimed Sunday that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi praised its surprise attack on Israel in a phone call with the group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news on Sunday said Raisi spoke with Haniyeh in a phone call and “reviewed the situation underway in the occupied lands,” but did not provide further details.
In a later statement, Raisi said his country “supports the Palestinian nation’s legitimate defense,” and that Israel and its backers “bear responsibility for endangering the security of the nations of the region.”
Haniyeh expressed his appreciation for Iran’s position, according to a statement released by Hamas.
Iran is Israel’s archenemy, and the two countries have long engaged in a form of proxy war, in which Iran-backed groups fight Israeli forces.
An official in US President Joe Biden’s administration said Saturday that it’s not yet clear whether Iran played a direct role in this weekend’s attacks on Israel, but that there is no question Hamas is funded, equipped and armed by Iran.
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