Israel's defence minister has ordered a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip following an unprecedented incursion into Israel by Hamas fighters.
Israel formally declared war on Sunday and gave the green light for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas for Saturday's surprise attack.
More than 1,100 people have been killed and thousands wounded on both sides.
The defence minister's announcement on Monday came as Israel's military scoured the country's south for Hamas fighters and guarded breaches in its border fence with tanks while pounding Gaza from the air.
A spokesperson said the Israeli military regained control of border communities taken by Hamas fighters during the attack. But Palestinian militants continued firing barrages of rockets, setting off air raid sirens in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
REPORT: EGYPT SEEKS ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PRISONER TRADE
Egypt has engaged in negotiations with Israel and Palestinian militant groups to release Palestinian women in Israel's prisons in exchange for Israeli women captured by Hamas militants, the state-owned Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported Monday.
The daily paper quoted an unnamed source as saying that the negotiations were aimed at finalising an agreement on the trade.
“The Egyptian government is presently awaiting responses from both parties regarding the proposed prisoners exchange and a temporary cease-fire,” Al-Ahram said.
Palestinian militant groups have claimed to be holding over 130 people who were captured in Israel in the past two days.
Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua told The Associated Press by phone that the group's fighters had captured more Israelis as recently as Monday morning.
He said the group aims to free all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, which in the past has agreed to lopsided exchanges.
LEBANON URGES INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO PRESSURE ISRAEL
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Monday that the tiny country's priority is to maintain stability along its southern border with Israel following an exchange of attacks between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants over the weekend.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing rockets at three Israeli positions in a disputed territory along the border of the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, before Israel returned fire.
Mikati called on the international community to “take responsibility” in pressuring Israel to return to peace talks under the Arab Peace Initiative.
“Anything other than that is a further spiraling of violence that will not benefit anyone,” he said.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has praised key ally Hamas for its unprecedented incursion into Israel but not said if it would attempt to join forces.
Israel has estimated that Hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at the country.
EUROPEAN NATIONS REPATRIATE CITIZENS WITH FLIGHTS FROM ISRAEL
Governments and airlines in Europe are conducting emergency and regular flights from Israel to bring back European citizens who were in the country when Hamas fighters attacked.
Romania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs says nearly 600 Romanian citizens, including two groups of pilgrims, were repatriated from Israel on commercial flights over the weekend.
A Bulgarian government aircraft has been sent to Tel Aviv to evacuate Bulgarian citizens stranded in Israel. National carrier Bulgaria Air cancelled its flights to Tel Aviv. Canceled its flights to Tel Aviv.
Bulgarian media say a total of 179 Bulgarians and one Croatian citizens were evacuated on the government-organized flights between Sunday night and early Monday.
Two Hungarian air force planes carrying 215 people from Israel arrived in Budapest early Monday, according to posts by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Facebook.
Slovakia's government plans to send a government plane to Tel Aviv on Wednesday to pick up Slovak nationals.
A spokesman for Greece's government, Pavlos Marinakis, says 81 of the 149 Greeks registered as having been in Israel over the weekend returned to Athens on Sunday night.
Spain's Foreign Ministry has urged people not to travel to Israel. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said he expected all Spaniards wishing to leave Israel will have been brought back by later Monday.
RUSSIA EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE' IN ISRAEL
The Kremlin is “extremely concerned” by the “spiral of violence” in Israel, spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
“We believe that this situation needs to be put onto a peaceful track as soon as possible. And the continuation of such a spiral of violence, of course, is fraught with further escalation and expansion of this conflict. This is a great danger for the region, so we are extremely concerned,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin spokesman added that Russian authorities were not aware of any Russian nationals injured in the conflict.
EUROPEAN UNION CONVENES EMERGENCY MEETING
The European Union is convening an emergency meeting of its foreign ministers to assess the developing violence in Israel, while stressing that the nation had every right to defend itself against the unprecedented incursion by Hamas fighters.
The ministers will organise the Tuesday meeting in Oman, where EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and some EU delegations are attending an EU-Gulf Cooperation Council joint meeting.
Others will join by video conference.
“The priority right now is for the aggression by Hamas to stop. The hostages need to be released and we need to see the overall deescalation of the situation,” EU spokesman Peter Stano said.