Around 1,500 bodies of Hamas members have been found in Israel around the Gaza Strip, the army said on Tuesday, as it pummelled the Palestinian enclave with air strikes.

‘Approximately 1,500 bodies of Hamas (fighters) were found in Israel around the Gaza Strip,’ military spokesman Richard Hecht told reporters, adding that security forces had ‘more or less restored control over the border’ with Gaza.

‘Since last night we know that no one came in .. but infiltrations can still happen.’

The army had ‘nearly completed’ evacuation of all the communities around the border, he added.

Hecht said the military had deployed 35 battalions to the border area.

Israel is reeling under a deadly attack by Hamas militants who stormed the border fence under a barrage of rocket fire on Saturday morning and killed more than 900 people inside Israel.

In response Israel is carrying out a massive air and artillery bombardment of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip that has so far killed at least 687 people in the coastal enclave.

Before dawn on Tuesday, the Israeli military struck what it said were Hamas targets in Gaza, especially in the Rimal neighbourhood and in the southern city of Khan Yunis.