Daily Despatch: The Day After In Israel-Gaza War - Rage, Rising Body Count

From the frontlines of the Israel-Palestine war, NDTV brings you daily despatches by journalist Allan Sorensen, Middle East Correspondent for Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad, giving insights and gripping first-hand accounts from the war-torn region.

The sheer scale of Israel's tragedy became clear a day after the Hamas attack.

If Israel was in a state of national shock on Saturday, when the Palestinian Hamas movement in Gaza carried out a comprehensive surprise attack, the collective trauma, grief and anger of the people erupted a day later.

From the early hours of Sunday, the number of deaths continued to spiral. Reports of relentless shooting in Israeli border towns made it clear that the surprise attack of the previous day was ongoing.

As I write this, the Israeli death toll stands at 700 and 2,300 have suffered wounds in various degrees. These numbers are expected to grow, given that Israeli authorities still don't have a complete overview of the situation along the Gaza border. Bodies are being collected and transported in large trucks for identification.

After shootouts between Israeli army units and Hamas fighters in the Israeli city of Sderot during the early hours of Sunday the city was declared cleansed of Hamas infiltrators. However, fighting in the city broke out again on Sunday afternoon, and in an official statement, Hamas in Gaza announced that its fighters were still inside Israel, with many hiding and preparing for more attacks from within Israeli cities.

Israeli authorities estimate that approximately 1,000 Hamas fighters managed to cross the border fence into Israel during Saturday's attack. As of late Sunday night, areas and villages near Gaza have not been declared completely cleansed by the Israeli authorities. The police and the army are combing through cities, villages and small communities, and even fields and forests, to make sure no Hamas fighters are left in the area.

All Israeli citizens living within a four km radius of the Gaza strip have been asked to stay in. This is mainly because of the fear of Hamas infiltrators, but also, rockets are still being fired from Gaza. According to Israeli officials, nearly 5,000 rockets have hit Israel since early Saturday morning. 

In response, Israeli Air Force jets continued to hit targets in Gaza throughout Sunday. The Israeli Army Chief, Herzi Halevi, said more than 800 different targets had been hit so far. 

The Palestinian death toll inside Gaza rose to 413 in the late hours of Sunday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

In contrast to Saturday, where most Israelis in the villages surrounding Gaza were hiding in shelters, Sunday became the day where horrifying testimonies from the Hamas attack reached the entire Israeli population.

Almost all Israeli media outlets are focused on telling the stories of the survivors at the moment. The stories match the many videos from the attack shared by Hamas members on social media. While Israel officially accuses Hamas of war crimes, the Hamas government Sunday afternoon sent out a directive to its members not to share pictures or videos on social media, especially with regard to some 130 Israelis taken hostage and brought to Gaza.

Many videos, however, have already drawn public attention in and outside Israel, causing immense anger among the Israeli population.

One video shows Israeli toddlers apparently taken hostage in Gaza. They are placed publicly in small hen houses and Palestinians making fun of them can be heard in the background.

Another video shows Hamas-fighters sitting on the half-naked body of a seemingly dead hostage. Locals are seen spitting on the body and cursing.

A third video, out of thousands, shows Yaffa, an 85-year-old Israeli grandmother taken hostage by Hamas, being paraded through the streets of Gaza in a small vehicle.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza have stated that they want to use the Israeli hostages as part of a deal to free Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. 

According to Israeli media reports, some sort of indirect negotiations via a third party are taking place in order to free at least some of the hostages who are either too young or very old.

The main debate in Israel during Sunday focused on the reaction to these videos and the rage that followed. At the same time, there are multiple unanswered questions about how Hamas managed to surprise - completely overwhelm - Israel and why it is taking so long for Tel Aviv to regain control.

For the first time since the surprise attack, for many Israelis, shock gave way to outrage. Much of the anger was directed at the government, which was accused of betraying large sections of the population. 
In Israel, the Hamas attack is being broadly compared to acts of terror groups like al Qaeda and Islamic State. 

World leaders have condemned the attack on Israel and especially the way in which it was carried out.

Israel is also occupied with yet another potential threat and is fortifying its military presence on its northern border to Lebanon. More than 100,000 Israelis have been called back for reserve duty. On Sunday, flights from Greece brought back some 5,000 Israelis who summoned for reserve duty while vacationing abroad.

Since Saturday night, the increased presence of Israeli drones, helicopters and fighter jets has been felt in the skies of northern Israel due to tension between Israel and the Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

Since the Hamas attack, Tel Aviv has warned Hezbollah through the international Unifil observer team in Lebanon not to engage in any fighting with Israel. Yet, on Sunday morning Hezbollah attacked Israeli army positions in the border area with mortar grenades. 

The attack was carried out "in solidarity" with Hamas, according to a statement released by Hezbollah.

"The Islamic resistance [Hizbullah] ... attacked three positions of the Zionist enemy in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms ... with large numbers of artillery shells and guided missiles," the statement read.

In retaliation, the Israeli army attacked a Hezbollah position. There are no reports of casualties in these two events and the border area remained calm. As a precaution, the Israeli army has asked the Israeli population living in close proximity to the Lebanese border to leave the area.

The Israeli security cabinet has voted to declare the country officially at war, which means that "significant military activities," can be carried out.

In a blitz of interviews to foreign media outlets, Israeli Knesset member Danny Danon, a politician considered close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says Israel's aim is to topple the Hamas movement in Gaza. 

It is widely believed that Israel will be able to weaken Hamas significantly only by a land invasion of Gaza, not just by air raids.

For now, Hamas commanders and fighters are believed to be hiding in underground tunnels in Gaza.

Late Sunday it was published that the Israeli Navy commando unit Shayetet 13 had abducted Muhammad Abu Ghali, a Commander in the navy of Hamas, from Gaza.

In a show of military support to Israel, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that the country was sending its newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, along with a full carrier strike group to the Mediterranean Sea.

(Allan Sorensen is the Middle East correspondent for the Danish daily newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.