Israeli deaths jump to over 1,200 as tensions in the north continue rising

Tensions on Israel’s northern border continue to rise on Tuesday as the country awaits the decision about a possible ground offensive into the Gaza Strip on Day 5 of Operation Iron Swords.

Overnight, the number of confirmed Israeli deaths in the Hamas attack crossed 1,200, with an additional 3,000 wounded.

The sudden spike in the reported death toll, adding hundreds of more victims to the count, can be attributed to the delay in transporting bodies to the center where they can be identified, according to the local Kan news outlet. In addition, the sheer number of victims in Kibbutz Be’eri and Kfar Azza and the surrounding area, where the Hamas attacks were initiated on Saturday, has contributed to the sudden spike.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant toured the area surrounding the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, receiving briefs about the situation and talking to soldiers in the field.

In Be’eri, one of the towns hit the hardest by the terror attack, Gallant told the soldiers: “We will not allow a reality in which Israeli children are murdered... I have removed every restriction – we will eliminate anyone who fights us, and use every measure at our disposal.”

“Anyone who decapitates citizens, or murders women and Holocaust survivors – will be eliminated. We will use all our force and make no compromises [on this issue].”

“What we saw in our southern communities was a massacre, yet in the battles – you [our soldiers] won…We will resettle here [Israel's south] – we will come back to Be’eri, in a few months, and the situation will be different,” Gallant added.

IDF spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari on Wednesday gave an update on the number of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel, reporting that the number has now crossed 5,000. Hamas had claimed to have fired more than 5,000 rockets on the first day of fighting.

Hagari refused to divulge statistics about the effectiveness of Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, not wanting to provide such information to the terror organization.

Eighteen Hamas terrorists have been eliminated since Tuesday morning, according to Hagari, joining the other approximately 1,000 terrorists who were found and killed within Israeli territory, and the additional hundreds of dead Hamas terrorists on the border fence and inside the Gaza Strip.

Regarding the overnight grenade launches from Syria into Israel, Hagari downplayed the threat, stressing that the scale of the attack was small and didn’t indicate the outbreak of conflict on the northern border.

On Tuesday evening, Israel Defense Forces responded with artillery fire after six grenades were launched, two of them landing in open areas inside Israeli territory.

The Israeli Air Force reportedly continued to pound hundreds of Hamas targets inside the Gaza Strip overnight.

Two senior Hamas officials were eliminated on Tuesday, according to the IDF, including Jawad Abu Shamala, the terror organization's finance minister who was responsible for the distribution of terror funds, and Hamas’ political bureau chief, Zakaria Abu Maamar, who served as head of international relations.

The IDF also confirmed that the first U.S. plane carrying military aid arrived at the Nevatim Air Base on Tuesday evening.