FLASH
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The Israeli military said it was preparing unrelenting strikes to destroy Hamas, while former US President Barack Obama warned that "any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs may ultimately fail".
The Palestinian health ministry said the death toll in Gaza had reached 5,000.
Israel struck hundreds of targets in Gaza from the air on Monday as its soldiers battled Hamas militants during raids in the besieged Palestinian strip, where civilians are trapped in dire conditions. Hamas on Monday freed two Israeli women among more than 200 hostages taken during the October 7 attack.
Israel's Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi issued a statement saying Israel had no intention of curbing its attacks on the Gaza Strip and hinting that it was preparing for a ground attack, Reuters reports.
" We want to bring Hamas to a state of complete disintegration. The path is one of continuous attacks, damaging Hamas everywhere and in every way. We are well prepared for ground operations in the south. The troops that have the most time are the most prepared and that's what we're doing now ," Halevi said late Monday.
Publicly, the United States has emphasized Israel's right to defend itself, but two sources familiar with the matter said the White House, Pentagon and State Department have added private calls for caution in conversations with the Israelis. A US priority is to buy time for negotiations to release other hostages, said the sources, who spoke before the hostage releases were announced on Monday.
Asked about the possibility of a truce, US President Joe Biden said: "We have to release those hostages and then we can talk."
Obama, in a rare comment by a former US president on the foreign policy crisis, issued a written statement warning Israel not to cause civilian casualties in retaliation against Hamas, which would alienate generations of all Palestinians.
" Any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire. Thousands of Palestinians have already been killed in the bombing of Gaza, many of them children. Hundreds of thousands have been forcibly evicted from their homes ," Obama said in a statement posted on social media.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to attend a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East on Tuesday. At least 5,087 Palestinians have been killed in two weeks of attacks, including 2,055 children
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