Israel-Hamas war Day 3 highlights: 11 US nationals killed; Washington begins munition delivery to Israel

The shock of a Hamas assault has restored the United States to a familiar role as unequivocal backer of Israel, using its leverage not to encourage calm but to shield its ally.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has historically had rocky relations with Democratic presidents such as Joe Biden over the Israeli leader's opposition to Palestinian sovereignty and engagement with Iran and, most recently, his hard-right government's overhaul of the judiciary.

Biden had already turned a page with Netanyahu in pursuit of a potentially landmark Israeli-Saudi normalization deal. That prospect is now likely on hold, but the violence has also pushed his differences with Netanyahu farther into the rear view.

The US president has promised "full support" for Israel, sent munitions and ordered warships to the eastern Mediterranean -- a veiled warning to Hamas backer Iran.

At the UN Security Council, Washington pushed for full-throated condemnation of Hamas, while Moscow sought a broader statement backing a return to a Middle East peace process.

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired a salvo of rockets onto northern Israel on Monday in response to at least three of its members being killed in Israeli shelling on Lebanon.

The exchange of fire marks a significant expansion of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants to the Israeli-Lebanese border further north. Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel fought a brutal month-long war in 2006.

Hezbollah in a statement on Monday said it had fired rockets and mortars on two Israeli military posts in the Galilee. The Israeli military said it identified a number of "launches" from Lebanon into Israel, without any injuries. It said it was responding with artillery fire onto Lebanon.

Hezbollah said in consecutive online statements that three of its members had been killed in Israel's "aggression" on southern Lebanon on Monday afternoon. Two Lebanese security sources told Reuters two more Hezbollah members were killed.

A married couple with dual Italian-Israeli citizenship are missing from their kibbutz near Gaza and have probably been taken hostage, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday.

"They are a man and a woman, husband and wife ... and were living in the Be'eri kibbutz. They are not answering calls from their family," Tajani told state broadcaster RAI.

"We hope to find them, but at this time we don't have any other news. It is probable that they have been kidnapped."

He did not give their names.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called on Israel's opposition to form a government of national unity as the country reeled under a deadly assault by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

"I call on opposition leaders to immediately form an emergency government of national unity without any preconditions," Netanyahu said in a televised speech.

Netanyahu, who sits at the head of a hard-right coalition government, is facing one of the biggest crises in Israel's history after Hamas launched its surprise attack on Saturday morning.

In his speech on Monday, he said the government planned to regain control of the territory and "eliminate terrorists" still present in Israel.

Israel planned to carry out a "massive" assault against Hamas with "unprecedented force" and "strengthen other fronts in the north against Hezbollah" in Lebanon, as well as in the occupied West Bank, he said.

Netanyahu said he will also continue to campaign for international support and work for the "unity of the people" by forming the national unity government.

The World Bank on Monday urged a "rapid de-escalation" of the fighting in Israel and Gaza as the violence cast a pall over the start of the bank's annual meetings with the International Monetary Fund in Morocco.

An internal World Bank memo seen by Reuters cited a "devastating loss of life, destruction and heavy toll on civilians being incurred on both sides," but voiced support for the lender's work in Gaza and the West Bank.

"We hope for a rapid de-escalation of the conflict and end to the violence. The World Bank and our development partners have long worked to support the poorest, most vulnerable people in the West Bank and Gaza, and we remain committed to building the foundations for a more stable and sustainable future."

The Oct. 9-15 annual meetings in Marrakech are expected to focus heavily on increasing resources for the IMF and the World Bank, both potentially contentious moves. But the attention of many government officials and non-profit representatives on the first day turned to the possibility of a wider conflict.

"We're all just very much taken aback by the magnitude of the casualties on both sides," Anna Bjerde, the World Bank's managing director of operations told Reuters in an interview.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday urged Israel against "indiscriminately" attacking civilians in its war with Hamas militants in Gaza.

But Erdogan also delivered measured criticism of Hamas and urged both sides to respect the "ethics" of war.

Erdogan told Israeli President Isaac Herzog by phone that "harming the people of Gaza collectively and indiscriminately would further increase the suffering and the spiral of violence in the region," Erdogan's office said.

Erdogan has fervently backed the Palestinian cause and supported a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He broke away from a regular cabinet meeting to hold an urgent round of telephone diplomacy Monday aimed at easing the raging crisis.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu denies reports of being warned ahead of attack from Egypt. He urged Israelis to avoid spreading fake news. “Difficult days are still ahead of us,” he said.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, in his first public address after the attack, said ‘we have not seen atrocities that Hamas carried out since the days of ISIS’.

“We have always known what Hamas is. Now the world knows. Hamas is ISIS.”

Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 680 people have been killed in Israeli strikes and more than 3,700 others wounded, reports AP

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett calls the current conflict “the harshest event since the War of Independence.”

Speaking to local news channel from southern Israel, Bennett elaborates: “This is not the Yom Kippur War — it is Yom Kippur multiplied by 100, because here we are talking about murder, the systematic slaughter of babies, girls, boys, things that are hard to bear.”

“We set up a Jewish state in this land in order to defend ourselves, and now the time has come to fight back,” he says.

“We have to lift up our heads… we are heroic people,” Bennett adds, citing acts of heroism by residents of Kfar Aza, Nahal Oz, Netiv Ha’Asara and other communities where “heroes confronted the terrorists,” killed some of them, and in some cases were killed. “We are a people of lions,” he says.

Israeli rescue service says more than 100 bodies found in a small farming community that was scene of a hostage standoff, reports AP

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security assessment this evening at the Kirya in Tel Aviv

Hamas military spokesman says it will kill a civilian hostage any time Israel targets Gaza civilians without warning, reports AP

The European Commission said on Monday it was putting all of its development aid for Palestinians, worth 691 million euros ($729 million), under review and immediately suspending all payments following Hamas' attack on Israel.

Germany and Austria earlier on Monday said they were suspending bilateral development aid to Palestinians, while others such as Italy had said suspending aid was not up for discussion.

Europe is one of the main sources of aid to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories where the United Nations estimates that around 2.1 million people need humanitarian assistance, among them 1 million children. It is unclear whether the suspensions in development aid will also apply to such assistance.

The EU commission did not immediately respond to a request to clarify this.

"The scale of terror and brutality against Israel and its people is a turning point," Oliver Varhelyi, the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, said in a post on social media. "There can be no business as usual."

The usually bustling streets of Jerusalem were eerily quiet on Monday as deadly fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants raged for a third day in and around the Gaza Strip.

"Jerusalem is indeed a ghost town," said May Bahbah, a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem in her 40s.

"People are in fear and worried," she told AFP, standing next to a shuttered greengrocer.

Palestinians living in the city's Israeli-annexed east "have to go to their jobs but they are worried they might be abused" by Israeli forces "because of the war situation", said Bahbah.

Near Khan al-Zait, the Old City's main market, few shops had opened on Monday.

Hazem, 42, who did not wish to disclose his full name, came from the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan to run some errands and was visibly angry.

"The (Israeli) police officers asked me to get out of the car, and they searched it and found an electrical outlet tester," he told AFP.

"One of them slapped me so hard, and when they wanted to attack me, an Arab officer stopped them."

Hamas' armed wing said on Monday it will begin executing an Israeli civilian captive in return for any new Israeli bombing of civilian houses without pre-warning.

Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Obaida said they have been acting in accordance with Islamic instructions by keeping the Israeli captives safe and sound, blaming the intended move on Israel's stepped-up bombing and killing of civilians inside their homes in air strikes without warning them.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan told his Israeli counterpart on Monday that any steps that collectively harmed the people of Gaza would increase suffering in the region and that common sense was needed, the Turkish presidency said.

Erdogan told Israeli President Isaac Herzog in a phone call that Turkey would ramp up its efforts for lasting peace in the region, the presidency added.

While I most strongly condemn the terrorist attack by Hamas, it is imperative to protect civilians and respect IHL. EU humanitarian aid to Palestinians in need will continue as long as needed, says European Commissioner for Crisis Management.

Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen says, "...There is no dispute in regards to the land of Gaza. We gave the Palestinian Gaza till the last millimetre. There is no dispute in regard to the land..."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday he was "deeply distressed" by Israel's imposition of a total siege on the Gaza Strip following Hamas' assault on the country.

"The humanitarian situation in Gaza was extremely dire before these hostilities," Guterres told reporters. "Now it will only deteriorate exponentially."

The Mexican army is carrying out humanitarian flights aimed at bringing home nationals from Israel amid the attack on the country by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, the government said on Monday.

An unknown number of hostages were taken by Hamas after it launched a surprise attack in Israel on Saturday. Two Mexicans are believed to have been among those taken by the group, Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said on Sunday.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday said in a press conference that Mexico would not take sides in the conflict and the United Nations should convene all member countries to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict.

"More than condemnation, what is required is a search for peaceful solutions, that there is dialogue and that further confrontation and violence is avoided," Lopez Obrador said.

Some 5,000 Mexican nationals are in Israel and some 300 have asked to leave, according to Lopez Obrador.

A plane leaving on Monday morning has a capacity of about 170 passengers, the defence ministry said. A second plane was to leave later in the day.

Norwegian Air is cancelling its flights from Copenhagen and Stockholm to Tel Aviv this week and return flights, a spokesman for the company said on Monday.

"Due to the current situation in Israel, Norwegian has decided to cancel all its flights to and from Tel Aviv up to and including Sunday 15th October," a company spokesperson said.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would impose a "complete siege" on the long blockaded enclave and stressed what this meant for its 2.3 million people: "No electricity, no food, no water, no gas -- it's all closed."

Palestinians in the impoverished coastal territory braced for what many feared will be a massive Israeli ground attack aiming to defeat Hamas and liberate the hostages.

Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip Monday and cut off the water supply as it kept bombing targets in the crowded Palestinian enclave in response to the Hamas surprise assault it has likened to the 9/11 attacks.

Reeling from the Islamist group's unprecedented ground, air and sea attacks, Israel has counted over 700 dead and launched a withering barrage of strikes on Gaza that have raised the death toll there to 560 people.

"The military operation is still continuing," Hossam Badran, a Hamas official, told AFP from Doha, adding that "there is currently no chance for negotiation on the issue of prisoners or anything else".