Netanyahu: Israel 'just beginning' response to Hamas attack

Palestinians inspect damage in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, at Beach refugee camp, in Gaza City, Oct. 9, 2023. [Via VOA]

The dead in Israel also included people from Argentina, Britain, Cambodia, France, Nepal, Thailand, and Ukraine, officials from those nations said.

Some governments have worked to carry out evacuation flights for their nationals in Israel. South Korea told VOA's Korean service it expected a flight with 300 of its citizens to arrive in Seoul early Wednesday.

The United Nations said more than 187,000 of the 2.3 million people living in Gaza have been internally displaced.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the United States issued a joint statement expressing "united support to the State of Israel, and our unequivocal condemnation of Hamas and its appalling acts of terrorism."

"All of us recognize the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and support equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike. But make no mistake: Hamas does not represent those aspirations, and it offers nothing for the Palestinian people other than more terror and bloodshed," the statement said.

Ari Harow, former chief of staff to Netanyahu, told VOA's Deewa service that Israel had no choice when entering the conflict, with Hamas militants attacking one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar.

"This is not something that Israel had planned for or had wanted," Harow said. "But once we have been dragged into this and once war was declared, the goal is one and very clear, and that is to destroy the terror infrastructure in Gaza forever, to make sure that the people of Israel, the citizens of Israel, don't have to face this type of brutality ever again."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy drew a parallel between Russia's invasion of his country and the Hamas attack on Israel.

"The same evil and the only difference is that there is a terrorist organization that attacked Israel, and here is a terrorist state that attacked Ukraine," Zelenskyy said in a video address Monday to a NATO parliamentary assembly in Copenhagen.

Gaith al-Omari, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told VOA that Russia will try to use the Israel-Hamas conflict to sever international support for Ukraine.

"If Israel conducts the war in a way that minimizes civilian casualties, I believe it will continue having international support," al-Omari said. "Yet however, if they use unreasonable force, then the shift will change. In the meantime, yes, Russia will try to break the consensus. China will also try to break the consensus. This is going to be a test for the U.S. too."