Israel bombarded Gaza with air strikes early today killing at least 70 people, Hamas officials said as the military said it had struck some 320 targets in the Palestinian enclave in 24 hours.

The Israeli military said Monday it had hit “over 320 military targets in the Gaza Strip” over the past 24 hours.

“The terror targets struck included tunnels containing Hamas terrorists, dozens of operational command centres… and Islamic Jihad terrorists, military compounds, and observation posts,” the army said in a statement.

Israel’s attacks concentrated on the Gaza Strip’s centre and north, Palestinian media reported. A strike on a house near the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, killed several Palestinians and wounded others, according to media reports.

Health authorities in Gaza said at least 4,600 people were killed in Israel’s two-week bombardment that began after a Hamas Oct. 7 rampage on southern Israeli communities in which 1,400 people were killed and 212 were taken into Gaza as hostages.

Here are the live updates on the Israel-Hamas war:

The United States has advised Israel to hold off on a ground assault in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and is keeping Qatar – a broker with the Palestinian militants – apprised of those talks, sources said, as Washington tries to free more hostages and prepare for a possible spillover in a wider regional war.

After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and killed some 1,400 people, the United States stood by its ally and stressed that Israel has the right to defend itself. It has also publicly stressed that Israel will decide its own timetable for retaliation.

But the White House, Pentagon and State Department have now stepped up private appeals for caution in conversations with the Israelis, two sources familiar with discussions said, as Israel’s blockade of Gaza worsens a humanitarian crisis and the death toll from its bombardment of the enclave passes 5,000.

A U.S. priority is to allow more time for negotiations on the release of hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, sources said, particularly after the unexpected release of two Americans on Friday. Hamas said it released two more hostages on Monday. Hamas is believed to hold more than 200 hostages.

One U.S. official said the administration, mindful of Doha’s role as an intermediary with Hamas, was keeping Qatari officials informed of its advice to Israel so that they are fully up-to-speed as hostage negotiations continue.

“For now, there’s no clear roadmap or sequence of the steps towards complete de-escalation. The priority is on working to get the hostages out step-by-step,” said a source briefed on the hostage negotiations.

‘Tough Questions’

A second U.S. official said that European governments, many of whom also have citizens being held hostage, were also suggesting Israel refrain from launching its ground offensive to give space for the negotiations on their release to play out.

U.S. President Joe Biden discussed the hostage and humanitarian crises in Gaza with the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain on Sunday, the White House said.

The first U.S. official said that along with the hostage negotiations, advising Israel to hold off on its invasion could also give more time for humanitarian aid to be delivered to Gaza. Since Saturday, the United Nations said 54 trucks of aid had been able to enter Gaza from Egypt.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday that since the start of the conflict Washington had been speaking with Israel to “ascertain their intentions, their strategy, their aims, to see what their answers are, to the kinds of tough questions that any military ought to be asking.”

A U.S. defense official said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin – in many phone calls with his Israeli counterpart – had emphasized the need to be prepared for knock-on effects of a ground offensive, which include the risks of widening conflict in the region, the fate of hostages and the humanitarian crisis.

U.S. officials have urged Israel to follow the laws of war in any invasion of Gaza, which is home to 2.3 million people.

US Defense

Israeli officials have increasingly signaled in public that a Gaza invasion could be imminent. None has given a hard date, however, or said that there has been a deferment. Israel has called up a record 300,000 military reservists.

“We will do what we need to do, when we need to do it,” Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to Washington Eliav Benjamin on told Israel’s Army Radio Monday, playing down U.S. sway on planning for an offensive.

Since Sunday, Israel has signaled a shift in tactics by sending infantry, backed by tanks, on probing incursions of Gaza that have touched off clashes with Hamas fighters. It has also been focusing air strikes on what it described as areas where Hamas is assembling its fighters to ambush any invasion.

Advising Israel to hold off on a ground offensive also allows Washington to prepare for any possible retaliatory attacks against U.S. interests in the region as fears of a spillover grow, particularly between Israel and Lebanon’s heavily-armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

“We expect that there’s a likelihood of escalation … We are taking steps to make sure that we can effectively defend our people and respond decisively if we need to,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC on Sunday.

Washington has also grown concerned over the desire among some senior Israeli officials, including the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, advocating for a pre-emptive strike on Hezbollah.

Israel would have a difficult time fighting a war on two fronts simultaneously if Hezbollah launches a full-scale fight in the north, U.S. officials say. Washington has sent two aircraft carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean to bolster its presence in the region and act primarily as a deterrent to Israel’s other Middle Eastern foes.

Some of Israel’s actions in its war against Hamas, like cutting off food and water for Gaza, could “harden Palestinian attitudes for generations” and weaken international support for Israel, former U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday.

In rare comments on an active foreign policy crisis, Obama said any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs of the war “could ultimately backfire.”

“The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population (in Gaza) threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis; it could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long-term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region,” Obama said.

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza with air strikes since Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel left over 1,400 people dead. Israel’s air strikes have killed more than 5,000 Palestinians, Gaza officials say.

Obama condemned Hamas’ attack and reiterated his support for Israel’s right to defend itself, while cautioning about risks to civilians in such wars.

It was not clear whether Obama had coordinated his statement with U.S. President Joe Biden, who served as his vice president for eight years.

During his presidency, Obama often backed Israel’s right to self-defense at the start of conflicts with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, but quickly called for Israeli restraint once Palestinian casualties mounted from airstrikes.

Gaza, a 45 km-long (25-mile) strip of land that is home to 2.3 million people, has been ruled politically since 2007 by Hamas, an Iran-backed Islamist group, but faces a blockade from Israel.

The Obama administration sought, but ultimately failed to broker, a peace deal in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Since taking office in early 2021, Biden has not tried to resume long-stalled talks, saying that leaders on both sides were too intransigent and the climate was not right.

Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a testy relationship when Obama was in office, including when Obama’s administration was negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran.

Biden, as Obama’s vice president, often acted as a mediator between the two men.

In his statement on Monday, Obama acknowledged that the U.S. had itself “fallen short of our higher values when engaged in war,” especially after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.