2,329 Palestinians killed making it 'deadliest' of five Gaza wars: Health Ministry

File photo/AFP

The health ministry in Gaza on Sunday said that 2,329 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, making it the deadliest Gaza war for Palestinians, the Associated Press reported.

The death toll on Sunday surpassed that of the third war between Israel and Hamas, in the summer of 2014, when 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, were killed, according to U.N. figures.

That war lasted six weeks, and 74 people were killed on the Israeli side, including six civilians.

The current war erupted a week ago when Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel in a shocking surprise attack. More than 1,300 Israelis, mostly soldiers, have been killed in the initial, wide-ranging assault and in rocket attacks from Gaza.

For Israel, this is the deadliest war since the 1973 conflict with Egypt and Syria.

Meanwhile, US aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group has joined the USS Gerald R Ford carrier, which earlier arrived in the Mediterranean, in a show of support for Israel.

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Israel's military expressed readiness to expand its war on Gaza with "coordinated attacks from the air, sea and land".

Iran eyes Syria to open second front against Israel: Report

A senior Israeli official has accused Iran of trying to open a second war front by deploying weapons in or through Syria, Reuters news agency reports.

Responding to a post on social media suggesting that Iran may adopt such a strategy in Syria, Joshua Zarka, head of strategic affairs for Israel's Foreign Ministry wrote: "They [Iranians] are".

Zarka also added "We [Israelis] are", in response to the original post suggesting that Israel had tried to preempt such a development by attacking Syria's airports.

Syria's Damascus and Aleppo airports have been unable to operate flights in recent days due to Israeli air attacks. Aleppo airport was attacked for a second time overnight on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian met Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday night in Qatar and agreed to cooperate for "fully achieving" the goals of Hamas and the Palestinian people the Jerusalem Post reported.

During the meeting, the two agreed to "continue cooperation to fully achieve the goals of Hamas and the Palestinian people," The Jerusalem Post reported citing a press release by Hamas.

Haniyeh stated that "what comes after this battle is a new history that will not be at all the same as it was before it."

Amirabdollahian also called Hamas's murder and kidnapping of civilians and soldiers in southern Israel as "glorious", as per The Jerusalem Post.