The conflict between Israel and Hamas, following the massive co-ordinated assault by Hamas militants on Saturday, has already killed more than 1,100 people, reports said.

 

The Hamas attack killed 700 Israelis in Israeli towns, the deadliest incursion into Israeli territory since Egypt and Syria's attacks in the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago. Dozens more are reported abducted.

 

In response, Israeli air strikes hit housing blocks, tunnels, a mosque and homes of Hamas officials in Gaza on Sunday, killing more than 400 people, including 20 children, in keeping with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vow of "mighty vengeance", said a Reuters report.

 

"The price the Gaza Strip will pay will be a very heavy one that will change reality for generations," said Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in the town of Ofakim, which suffered casualties and had hostages taken.

 

Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said the country had called in around 100,000 soldiers.

 

"Our job is to make sure that at the end of this war, Hamas will no longer have any military capabilities to threaten Israeli civilians with, and in addition to that we also need to make sure Hamas will not govern the Gaza Strip," he said.

 

The death toll will continue to rise as a large number of people are critically wounded, the Israel Defense Forces says.

 

Hamas' assault on Israel drove oil prices higher on Monday as markets priced in fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East.

 

Rescuers say they have found 260 bodies at a music festival which was attacked by Hamas militants.

 

In Gaza, air strikes have displaced 123,000 Palestinians with close to 74,000 seeking shelter in schools, the UN said.

 

The US is moving its aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, closer to Israel as President Joe Biden pledged Washington's 'rock solid' support to Tel Aviv.

 

On Sunday night, rockets were still being fired from the Palestinian enclave of Gaza into southern Israel, a BBC reporter said.