Benjamin Netanyahu's government had divided Israel with its controversial judicial reforms, but he now presides over a country which is united in its demand for a definitive reprisal against Hamas.
This sudden change in politics stems directly from the collective trauma caused to Israeli society by the bloody and unprecedented surprise attack by Hamas on Saturday, in which it killed at least 1,200 people and kidnapped dozens more.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed unwavering US support for Israel in its war on Hamas after talks Thursday with Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, who promised to "crush" the Palestinian militant group.
Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and took about 150 hostages in Saturday's surprise attack, the deadliest since the country's creation in 1948.
Israel has retaliated by raining air and artillery strikes in Gaza for six days, claiming more than 1,400 lives and displacing over 400,000 people in the crowded enclave.
Twenty-one Thai nationals have been killed in the conflict between Israel and militant group Hamas, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said Thursday, up from the previous toll of 20.
"The update from last night is bad news that one more Thai died, the number rises to 21," he said.
The war was triggered by a bloody attack by Hamas and has left thousands dead with around 150 hostages taken.
There are approximately 30,000 Thais in Israel, mostly working in the agriculture sector, according to Thailand's labour ministry.
From blood-streaked homes to swollen body bags, the scars of the shock raid by Hamas militants on communities in southern Israel remain as troops mass on the border with Gaza.
A pile of corpses at the entrance to the Beeri kibbutz less than five kilometres (around three miles) from the border warns of what happened inside the gated community, which was overrun on Saturday by militants who killed more than 100 residents, the military said.
"The devastation here is absolutely massive," said Doron Spielman, an Israeli army spokesman.
Arab foreign ministers on Wednesday denounced Israel's siege of Gaza following the shock attack by Palestinian militants on Israel, demanding that aid be "immediately" allowed to enter the blockaded enclave.
Israel has imposed a "complete siege" on the Gaza Strip, cutting off the water supply, food, electricity and other essential supplies, after Saturday's massive assault by Hamas militants that has killed hundreds on both sides.
At least four Palestinians were killed Wednesday as armed Israeli settlers attacked a town south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
In separate incidents, a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli army fire near Bethlehem and a teenager was killed near Hebron, the ministry said.
The latest fatalities bring to 29 the Palestinian death toll in the West Bank in violence related to the conflict since Hamas militants launched on Saturday an assault on Israel's south from the blockaded Gaza Strip.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed Wednesday to Israel in a show of solidarity after a bloody attack by Hamas, with Washington closing ranks with its ally that has launched heavy retaliation on the Gaza Strip.
Blinken was set to arrive Thursday for a lightning visit in which he is likely to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed an unrelenting response to what he called the Islamist militants' "savagery."
The UN Human Rights Council voted Wednesday to set up an independent fact-finding mission to probe alleged rights abuses in Sudan's brutal fighting.
"There is ... an urgent need to investigate and gather evidence of human rights violations and abuses and violations of international law, no matter where in Sudan they were committed, by whom they were committed," Britain's ambassador Simon Manley said, bringing forward the proposal on behalf of several countries.
The draft resolution was only narrowly passed, with Sudan fuming at the plan.
Turkish bombardment has damaged more than half of Kurdish-held northeast Syria's power and oil infrastructure, dealing a blow to its energy-dependent economy, the Kurds' top commander said.
Mazloum Abdi, who heads the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), also criticised Washington for failing to do more to prevent the strikes, during an interview with AFP in the northern city of Hasakeh.
On October 5, Turkey launched a bombing campaign in Syria's northeast after it said militants who were behind an attack in Ankara came from and were trained in Syria.
The European Union's most senior officials held a solemn tribute Wednesday for the Israelis killed in Hamas attacks, and issued their most stark condemnation yet of the Palestinian militant group.
Attending a minute's silence in front of the European Parliament in Brussels, the president of the assembly Roberta Metsola made it clear she believes the killings were motivated by anti-Semitism.
"October 7 is a day that will go down in global infamy," she said, referring to Saturday's Hamas assault.
