Israel orders siege of Gaza, battles to re-take control of areas invaded by Hamas 

Backed by the largest activation of reservists in its history, Israel on Monday battled to regain control of areas invaded by Hamas terrorists over the weekend while ordering a complete siege of the Palestinian-held Gaza territory.

"The atrocities carried out by Hamas have not been seen since the atrocities of ISIS. Children bound and executed with the rest of their families, young girls and boys shot in the back, executed, and other atrocities that I will not describe here," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech Monday evening. "Hamas is the Islamic State, and we will defeat them the same way the West defeated the Islamic State."

"There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told a news conference.

"We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly,” he added.

Israel conducted an aerial bombardment of Gaza Sunday night, leveling buildings and forcing Palestinian residents to flee. More than 300,000 reservists were ordered to active duty, the largest such activation in Israel’s history.

The military said it had regained control of many areas invaded by Hamas but the process was going slower than it anticipated.

“We are still fighting,” Israeli Defense Forces Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told a briefing Monday morning. “We thought by this morning we’d be in a better place.”

The effort is being complicated by the fact that Hamas militants captured Israeli civilians, Americans and other foreigners in an effort to use them as shields from the counterattack.

Meanwhile, the horror of the initial Hamas attacks Saturday became more clear: at least 260 concertgoers were mowed down by guns in one venue, and there were reports of women being raped and soldiers being tortured.

Israeli media reported Monday that at least 900 Israeli citizens have been killed, as well as nine Americans. Palestinians said more than 400 on their side also have been killed. Thousands on both sides have been reported injured since the attack began early Saturday morning.

Still, two large questions linger over the tragedy: how much was Iran involved, and how could Israel’s vaunted intelligence services miss signals of the attack?