More than 260,000 people displaced in Gaza as brutal Israeli reprisal continues.

ISLAMABAD -- Israel vowed to escalate its response to an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas with a ground offensive, while US President Joe Biden pledged support for Israel and issued a warning to anyone who might seek to take advantage of the situation.

Israel said dozens of its fighter jets struck more than 200 targets overnight on Wednesday in a neighbourhood of Gaza City that it claimed had been used by Hamas to launch its unprecedented wave of attacks. Gaza's health ministry said at least 1,055 people have been killed and 5,184 injured in the

crowded coastal enclave. Israel's military said the death toll in Israel had reached 1,200 and more than 2,700 people had been wounded. "We have sustained extremely heavy casualties," military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said in a video briefing on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Hamas fighters holding Israeli soldiers and civilians hostage on Monday threatened to execute a captive for each home in Gaza hit without warning, but as night fell on Tuesday there was no indication they had done so. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, speaking to soldiers

near the Gaza fence, said: "Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be." "We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground. We've been controlling the area since Day 2 and we are on the offensive.

It will only intensify." At least 1,000 fighters who had infiltrated from Gaza had been killed, the Israel Hayom newspaper claimed. Israel withdrew troops from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation, and has kept it under blockade since Hamas came to power there in 2007.

Israel has...