The death toll in the Israel-Hamas war continued to climb early Wednesday, the fifth day after the Palestinian militant group launched a massive, highly coordinated terror attack on Israel from the tiny Gaza Strip. The brutal attack has claimed more than 1,200 lives in Israel, including 14 Americans, and led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare, "We are at war."

Israeli military and civilian officials confirmed reports to CBS News on Wednesday of "a massacre" on a kibbutz near the Gaza border, with an emergency response official saying he saw with his own eyes children among victims who were beheaded in the community.

President Biden called the Hamas attack "an act of sheer evil" and said American citizens were also among the dozens of civilians and Israeli troops being held as hostages by Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and has long been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

At least 950 people, including at least 140 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israel's retaliatory airstrikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry said in a social media post that at least 5,000 more people in the blockaded Palestinian territory were wounded, most of them women and children.

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