ZIONIST/AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE FAILURE
FIRST EVER UNIFIED AIR,SEA AND LAND ATTACK
GAZA COMMONFRONT FIGHTS BACK!
Alia Shoaib
Sat, October 7, 2023
Cars are burning after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a parking lot and a residential building in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.Tsafrir Abayov/AP Photo
Hamas launched an unprecented attack on Israel on Saturday by the "land, sea and air," the IDF said.
Videos appear to show Hamas fighters entering Israel using paragliders.
Israel declared a state of war following the surprise attack.
Videos appear to show Hamas fighters attacking Israel using motorized paragliders amid an unprecedented wave of surprise raids by the Palestinian militant group on Saturday.
Fighters appear to have crossed the border from Gaza into southern Israel, where there have been reports of gunmen opening fire and clashes in the street, per Reuters.
Videos filmed using mobile phones show Hamas fighters flying in, and Hamas later published video footage of their fighters training on the paragliders.
An IDF spokesperson said Hamas fighters had infiltrated from "land, sea and air," per The Times of Israel.
He said more than 2,200 rockets had been fired into Israel, while Hamas claimed over 5,000 rockets were fired.
According to the paper, there are at least seven sites where fighting is taking place between Hamas and IDF troops.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "We are at war," and said Israel "will win" in a video message.
Israel declared a state of war, and the IDF told civilians in southern and central Israel to stay close to shelters and those near the Gaza Strip to remain inside shelters.
At least 22 Israelis have been killed and over 300 wounded
Hamas published video footage of their fighters training on the paragliders.Hamas
Israeli forces said that the air force was responding by attacking targets in the Gaza Strip.
At least 22 Israelis have died, and over 300 have been injured, Israel's N12 news channel reported.
Reports have emerged suggesting that Hamas had kidnapped some IDF soldiers, with unverified photos and videos circulating on social media.
Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif said in a statement, per Haaretz: "We warned the enemy not to continue his aggression against the Al-Aqsa Mosque."
He also called on Palestinians in the West Bank and within the Green Line to attack "without restraint," in a rare statement.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is an important religious site in Jerusalem, which is often the site of clashes. Hundreds of Israelis entered the compound earlier this week
Divided Israel was caught with its guard down over Hamas attack - the fear will be there is more to come
Sky News
Updated Sat, October 7, 2023
Israel prides itself on its intelligence, its ability to see attacks coming.
But in the middle of its holy holiday season, it has been caught out.
Wherever this leads, this is a massive intelligence failure for Israel and a disaster for the Netanyahu government.
Read more: Hamas fighters on ground in Israel after '5,000' rockets fired - Israel-Gaza latest
Israel's intelligence agencies have all-pervading surveillance of their enemies, through technology and human intel.
Periodically, they neutralise threats with military operations in Gaza, reducing the capability of Hamas. Breezily, they call it mowing the grass.
But they have failed to contain this threat quite literally, with multiple militant squads bursting out of the Gaza Strip, wreaking havoc, killing many and taking hostages.
Every Israeli taken by Hamas is a disaster for the government in Jerusalem.
The five-year-long kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, a captured young Israeli soldier, was an agonising period for Israelis.
Unlike their enemies, who glory in the martyrdom and death of their young, Israelis hold the principle sacred that no one is left behind.
Read more:
Analysis: Unprecedented Hamas attack has caused crisis
Opinion: Netanyahu's power grab is tearing society apart
We do not know how many have been taken into Gaza. Some appear to be civilians. But their fate will torment Israel and its government.
So will the pictures of Palestinians apparently dancing on Israeli tanks.
The sight of buildings on fire in residential neighbourhoods, the failure to stop the waves of thousands of missiles.
Israel is deeply divided already, polarised by the fight over the Netanyahu government's plans to reform the judiciary that have mobilised hundreds of thousands onto the streets for months of protest.
The controversy has sapped the morale of the military and promptly many in its ranks to threaten mutiny.
That may or may not have contributed to the failures that we have witnessed today, but it certainly won't help the response.
For the last weeks, the talk has been of peace - both Israel and Saudi Arabia sounding optimistic about the chances of a historic detente.
But the prospects of peace breaking out between the Saudi custodians of the two holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina, and the occupiers of the third, Al Aqsa in the city Muslims call Al Quds, will have deeply alarmed many and made the situation more febrile and volatile.
The talk of Saudi-Israeli peace was also a threat to the influence of Iran, whose relations with Hamas have rarely been better.
That will undoubtedly have been a factor in making this happen. The Palestinian operation was multipronged and well-planned.
The fear is there is more to come, and a divided Israel caught with its guard down is not ready to see off the threat.
Sky News
Updated Sat, October 7, 2023
Israel prides itself on its intelligence, its ability to see attacks coming.
But in the middle of its holy holiday season, it has been caught out.
Wherever this leads, this is a massive intelligence failure for Israel and a disaster for the Netanyahu government.
Read more: Hamas fighters on ground in Israel after '5,000' rockets fired - Israel-Gaza latest
Israel's intelligence agencies have all-pervading surveillance of their enemies, through technology and human intel.
Periodically, they neutralise threats with military operations in Gaza, reducing the capability of Hamas. Breezily, they call it mowing the grass.
But they have failed to contain this threat quite literally, with multiple militant squads bursting out of the Gaza Strip, wreaking havoc, killing many and taking hostages.
Every Israeli taken by Hamas is a disaster for the government in Jerusalem.
The five-year-long kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, a captured young Israeli soldier, was an agonising period for Israelis.
Unlike their enemies, who glory in the martyrdom and death of their young, Israelis hold the principle sacred that no one is left behind.
Read more:
Analysis: Unprecedented Hamas attack has caused crisis
Opinion: Netanyahu's power grab is tearing society apart
We do not know how many have been taken into Gaza. Some appear to be civilians. But their fate will torment Israel and its government.
So will the pictures of Palestinians apparently dancing on Israeli tanks.
The sight of buildings on fire in residential neighbourhoods, the failure to stop the waves of thousands of missiles.
Israel is deeply divided already, polarised by the fight over the Netanyahu government's plans to reform the judiciary that have mobilised hundreds of thousands onto the streets for months of protest.
The controversy has sapped the morale of the military and promptly many in its ranks to threaten mutiny.
That may or may not have contributed to the failures that we have witnessed today, but it certainly won't help the response.
For the last weeks, the talk has been of peace - both Israel and Saudi Arabia sounding optimistic about the chances of a historic detente.
But the prospects of peace breaking out between the Saudi custodians of the two holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina, and the occupiers of the third, Al Aqsa in the city Muslims call Al Quds, will have deeply alarmed many and made the situation more febrile and volatile.
The talk of Saudi-Israeli peace was also a threat to the influence of Iran, whose relations with Hamas have rarely been better.
That will undoubtedly have been a factor in making this happen. The Palestinian operation was multipronged and well-planned.
The fear is there is more to come, and a divided Israel caught with its guard down is not ready to see off the threat.
'Sea of bodies' in Israel, scores dead in Gaza as shock Hamas attack unleashes war
Updated Sat, October 7, 2023
'Sea of bodies' in Israel, scores dead in Gaza as shock Hamas attack unleashes war
By Maayan Lubell, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ammar Awad
JERUSALEM/GAZA/SDEROT (Reuters) -Gunmen from the Palestinian group Hamas rampaged through Israeli towns on Saturday killing and capturing scores of civilians and soldiers in a surprise assault, met by Israel with massive retaliatory air strikes that killed scores in the Gaza Strip.
The worst attack on Israel for decades unleashed a war that both sides vowed to escalate. At least 200 Israelis were reported killed and 1,100 wounded by gunbattles raging in more than 20 locations inside Israel. In Gaza, health officials reported more than 230 people killed and 1,600 wounded.
"Our enemy will pay a price the type of which it has never known," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "We are in a war and we will win it".
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the assault that had begun in Gaza would spread to the West Bank and Jerusalem.
"This was the morning of defeat and humiliation upon our enemy, its soldiers and its settlers," he said in a speech. "What happened reveals the greatness of our preparation. What happened today reveals the weakness of the enemy."
In Sderot, in southern Israel near Gaza, bodies of Israeli civilians lay strewn across a highway, surrounded by broken glass. A woman and a man were sprawled out dead across the front seats of a car. A military vehicle drove past the bodies of another woman and a man in a pool of blood behind another car.
"I went out, I saw loads of bodies of terrorists, civilians, cars shot up. A sea of bodies, inside Sderot along the road, other places, loads of bodies," said Shlomi from Sderot.
Terrified Israelis, barricaded into safe rooms, recounted their plight by phone on live TV.
"They just came in again, please send help," a woman identified as Dorin told Israel's N12 News from Nir Oz, a kibbutz near Gaza. "My husband is holding the door closed ... They are firing rounds of bullets."
Esther Borochov, who fled a dance rave party attacked by the gunmen, told Reuters she survived by playing dead in a car after the driver trying to help her escape was shot point blank.
"I couldn't move my legs," she told Reuters at the hospital. "Soldiers came and took us away to the bushes."
In Gaza, black smoke and orange flames billowed into the evening sky from a high rise tower hit by an Israeli retaliatory strike. Crowds of mourners carried the bodies of freshly killed militants through the streets, wrapped in green Hamas flags.
Gaza's dead and wounded were carried into crumbling and overcrowded hospitals with severe shortages of medical supplies and equipment. The health ministry said 232 people had been killed.
Streets were deserted apart from ambulances racing to the scenes of air strikes. Israel cut the power, plunging the city into darkness.
'DAY OF THE GREATEST BATTLE'
By nightfall on Saturday in southern Israel, residents had yet to be given the all-clear to leave the shelters where they had hidden from the gunmen since the early hours.
"It’s not over because the (army) hasn’t said the kibbutz is clear of terrorists," Dani Rahamim told Reuters by telephone from the shelter where he was still hiding in Nahal Oz, close to the Gaza fence. Gunfire had subsided but regular explosions could still be heard.
Hamas said it fired a volley of 150 rockets towards Tel Aviv on Saturday evening in retaliation for an Israeli air strike that took down a high rise building with more than 100 apartments.
Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri told Al Jazeera that the group was holding a big number of Israeli captives, including senior officials. He said Hamas had enough captives to make Israel free all Palestinians in its jails.
The Israeli military confirmed Israelis were being held in Gaza. A military spokesman said Israel could mobilise up to hundreds of thousands of reservists and was also prepared for war on its northern front against Lebanon's Hezbollah group.
Hamas, which advocates Israel's destruction, said the attack was driven by what it said were Israel's escalated attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem and against Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
"This is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on earth," Hamas military commander Mohammad Deif said, announcing the start of the operation in a broadcast on Hamas media and calling on Palestinians everywhere to fight.
Hamas has since fought four wars against Israel since seizing control of Gaza in 2007. But the scenes of violence inside Israel itself were unlike anything seen since the suicide bombings of the Palestinian Intifada uprising two decades ago.
That Israel was caught completely off guard was lamented as one of the worst intelligence failures in its history, a shock to a nation that boasts of its intensive infiltration and monitoring of militants.
In Gaza, a narrow strip where 2.3 million Palestinians have lived under an Israeli blockade for 16 years, residents rushed to buy supplies in anticipation of days of war ahead. Some evacuated their homes and headed for shelters.
Scores of Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded in clashes at the border into Israel, where fighters captured the crossing point and tore down fences. Some of those dead were civilians, among crowds that attempted to cross into Israel through the damaged gates.
"We are afraid," Palestinian woman, Amal Abu Daqqa, told Reuters as she left her house in Khan Younis.
BIDEN OFFERS SUPPORT TO NETANYAHU
Western countries, led by the United States, denounced the Palestinian attack and pledged support for Israel.
"I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the Government and people of Israel," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement issued after the two men spoke on a call.
"Israel has a right to defend itself and its people. The United States warns against any other party hostile to Israel seeking advantage in this situation," Biden added.
Across the Middle East, there were demonstrations in support of Hamas, with Israeli and U.S. flags set on fire and marchers waving Palestinian flags in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
The Hamas attack was openly praised by Iran and by Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese allies.
U.N. Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland condemned the attacks on Israel, warning in a statement: "This is a dangerous precipice, and I appeal to all to pull back from the brink."
BACKDROP OF SURGING VIOLENCE
The escalation comes against a backdrop of surging violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Israeli occupied West Bank, where a Palestinian authority exercises limited self-rule, opposed by Hamas that wants Israel destroyed.
In the West Bank, there were clashes in several locations on Saturday, with stone throwing youths confronting Israeli troops. Four Palestinians including a 13-year-old boy were killed. Palestinian factions called a general strike for Sunday.
Israel itself has been experiencing internal political upheaval, with the most right-wing government in its history attempting to overhaul the judiciary.
Meanwhile, Washington has been trying to strike a deal that would normalise ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, seen by Israelis as the biggest prize yet in their decades-long for Arab recognition. Palestinians fear any such deal could sell out their future dreams of an independent state.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Ammar Anwar in SderotAdditional reporting by Henriette Chacar, Emily Rose and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Writing by James Mackenzie, Tom Perry, Michael Georgy and Peter Graff; Editing by William Mallard, Robert Birsel, Alex Richardson and Nick Macfie)
Updated Sat, October 7, 2023
'Sea of bodies' in Israel, scores dead in Gaza as shock Hamas attack unleashes war
By Maayan Lubell, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ammar Awad
JERUSALEM/GAZA/SDEROT (Reuters) -Gunmen from the Palestinian group Hamas rampaged through Israeli towns on Saturday killing and capturing scores of civilians and soldiers in a surprise assault, met by Israel with massive retaliatory air strikes that killed scores in the Gaza Strip.
The worst attack on Israel for decades unleashed a war that both sides vowed to escalate. At least 200 Israelis were reported killed and 1,100 wounded by gunbattles raging in more than 20 locations inside Israel. In Gaza, health officials reported more than 230 people killed and 1,600 wounded.
"Our enemy will pay a price the type of which it has never known," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "We are in a war and we will win it".
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the assault that had begun in Gaza would spread to the West Bank and Jerusalem.
"This was the morning of defeat and humiliation upon our enemy, its soldiers and its settlers," he said in a speech. "What happened reveals the greatness of our preparation. What happened today reveals the weakness of the enemy."
In Sderot, in southern Israel near Gaza, bodies of Israeli civilians lay strewn across a highway, surrounded by broken glass. A woman and a man were sprawled out dead across the front seats of a car. A military vehicle drove past the bodies of another woman and a man in a pool of blood behind another car.
"I went out, I saw loads of bodies of terrorists, civilians, cars shot up. A sea of bodies, inside Sderot along the road, other places, loads of bodies," said Shlomi from Sderot.
Terrified Israelis, barricaded into safe rooms, recounted their plight by phone on live TV.
"They just came in again, please send help," a woman identified as Dorin told Israel's N12 News from Nir Oz, a kibbutz near Gaza. "My husband is holding the door closed ... They are firing rounds of bullets."
Esther Borochov, who fled a dance rave party attacked by the gunmen, told Reuters she survived by playing dead in a car after the driver trying to help her escape was shot point blank.
"I couldn't move my legs," she told Reuters at the hospital. "Soldiers came and took us away to the bushes."
In Gaza, black smoke and orange flames billowed into the evening sky from a high rise tower hit by an Israeli retaliatory strike. Crowds of mourners carried the bodies of freshly killed militants through the streets, wrapped in green Hamas flags.
Gaza's dead and wounded were carried into crumbling and overcrowded hospitals with severe shortages of medical supplies and equipment. The health ministry said 232 people had been killed.
Streets were deserted apart from ambulances racing to the scenes of air strikes. Israel cut the power, plunging the city into darkness.
'DAY OF THE GREATEST BATTLE'
By nightfall on Saturday in southern Israel, residents had yet to be given the all-clear to leave the shelters where they had hidden from the gunmen since the early hours.
"It’s not over because the (army) hasn’t said the kibbutz is clear of terrorists," Dani Rahamim told Reuters by telephone from the shelter where he was still hiding in Nahal Oz, close to the Gaza fence. Gunfire had subsided but regular explosions could still be heard.
Hamas said it fired a volley of 150 rockets towards Tel Aviv on Saturday evening in retaliation for an Israeli air strike that took down a high rise building with more than 100 apartments.
Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri told Al Jazeera that the group was holding a big number of Israeli captives, including senior officials. He said Hamas had enough captives to make Israel free all Palestinians in its jails.
The Israeli military confirmed Israelis were being held in Gaza. A military spokesman said Israel could mobilise up to hundreds of thousands of reservists and was also prepared for war on its northern front against Lebanon's Hezbollah group.
Hamas, which advocates Israel's destruction, said the attack was driven by what it said were Israel's escalated attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem and against Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
"This is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on earth," Hamas military commander Mohammad Deif said, announcing the start of the operation in a broadcast on Hamas media and calling on Palestinians everywhere to fight.
Hamas has since fought four wars against Israel since seizing control of Gaza in 2007. But the scenes of violence inside Israel itself were unlike anything seen since the suicide bombings of the Palestinian Intifada uprising two decades ago.
That Israel was caught completely off guard was lamented as one of the worst intelligence failures in its history, a shock to a nation that boasts of its intensive infiltration and monitoring of militants.
In Gaza, a narrow strip where 2.3 million Palestinians have lived under an Israeli blockade for 16 years, residents rushed to buy supplies in anticipation of days of war ahead. Some evacuated their homes and headed for shelters.
Scores of Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded in clashes at the border into Israel, where fighters captured the crossing point and tore down fences. Some of those dead were civilians, among crowds that attempted to cross into Israel through the damaged gates.
"We are afraid," Palestinian woman, Amal Abu Daqqa, told Reuters as she left her house in Khan Younis.
BIDEN OFFERS SUPPORT TO NETANYAHU
Western countries, led by the United States, denounced the Palestinian attack and pledged support for Israel.
"I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the Government and people of Israel," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement issued after the two men spoke on a call.
"Israel has a right to defend itself and its people. The United States warns against any other party hostile to Israel seeking advantage in this situation," Biden added.
Across the Middle East, there were demonstrations in support of Hamas, with Israeli and U.S. flags set on fire and marchers waving Palestinian flags in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
The Hamas attack was openly praised by Iran and by Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese allies.
U.N. Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland condemned the attacks on Israel, warning in a statement: "This is a dangerous precipice, and I appeal to all to pull back from the brink."
BACKDROP OF SURGING VIOLENCE
The escalation comes against a backdrop of surging violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Israeli occupied West Bank, where a Palestinian authority exercises limited self-rule, opposed by Hamas that wants Israel destroyed.
In the West Bank, there were clashes in several locations on Saturday, with stone throwing youths confronting Israeli troops. Four Palestinians including a 13-year-old boy were killed. Palestinian factions called a general strike for Sunday.
Israel itself has been experiencing internal political upheaval, with the most right-wing government in its history attempting to overhaul the judiciary.
Meanwhile, Washington has been trying to strike a deal that would normalise ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, seen by Israelis as the biggest prize yet in their decades-long for Arab recognition. Palestinians fear any such deal could sell out their future dreams of an independent state.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Ammar Anwar in SderotAdditional reporting by Henriette Chacar, Emily Rose and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Writing by James Mackenzie, Tom Perry, Michael Georgy and Peter Graff; Editing by William Mallard, Robert Birsel, Alex Richardson and Nick Macfie)
Hamas surprise attack out of Gaza stuns Israel and leaves hundreds dead in fighting, retaliation
Sat, October 7, 2023
JERUSALEM (AP) — Under cover of a barrage of rockets, dozens of Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and into nearby Israeli towns, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday. A stunned Israel said it is now at war with Hamas and launched airstrikes in Gaza, vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price.”
In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gaza border. In some places, they roamed for hours, gunning down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response. Gunbattles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns.
Israel’s national rescue service said at least 200 people were killed and 1,100 wounded, making it the deadliest attack in Israel in decades. At least 198 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and at least 1,610 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The conflict threatened to escalate to an even deadlier stage with Israel’s vows of greater retaliation. Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers brought widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns. The situation is potentially more volatile now, with Israel’s far-right government stung by the security breach and with Palestinians in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza.
After nightfall, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza intensified, flattening several residential buildings in giant explosions, including a 14-story tower that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israeli forces fired a warning just before, and there were no reports of casualties.
Soon after, a Hamas rocket barrage into central Israel hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb, where two people were seriously injured.
The strength, sophistication and timing of the Saturday morning attack shocked Israelis. Hamas fighters used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing the long-blockaded Mediterranean territory, then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speed boats on the coast.
Bodies of dead Israeli civilians and Hamas militants were seen on streets of Israeli towns. Associated Press photos showed an abducted elderly Israeli woman being brought back into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle. Images showed fighters parading captured Israeli military vehicles through Gaza streets.
“We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass army mobilization. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.”
“The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” he added, promising that Israel would “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.”
The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, violence at Al Aqsa — the disputed Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount — increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians and growth of settlements.
“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message. He said the attack was only the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight. “Today the people are regaining their revolution.”
The Hamas incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, aiming to take back Israeli-occupied territories.
Comparisons to one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history sharpened criticism of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who had campaigned on more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. Political commentators lambasted the government over its failure to anticipate what appeared to be a Hamas attack unseen in its level of planning and coordination.
Asked by reporters how Hamas had managed to catch the army off guard, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, replied, “That’s a good question.”
The abduction of Israeli civilians and soldiers also raised a particularly thorny issue for Israel. Israel has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges in order to bring captive Israelis home.
Their number was not immediately known. Videos released by Hamas appeared to show at least three Israelis captured alive, and AP photos showed at least three civilians brought in Gaza, including the two women. Israeli television showed images of a young man stripped down to his pants being led on foot in a chokehold and reported that elderly women with dementia as well as workers from Thailand and the Philippines were among the captives.
The Israeli military confirmed that a number of Israelis had been taken captive. A spokesman for Hamas' military wing, Abu Obeida, said the group was holding dozens of Israeli soldiers captive in “safe places” and tunnels in the Gaza Strip. If true, the claim could set the stage for complicated negotiations on a swap with Israel, which is holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons.
The Hamas assault into southern Israel left a trail of civilians' bodies where they had encountered the advancing gunmen.
On the road outside the town of Sderot, a bloodied woman slumped dead in the seat of her car. Inside the town, bodies of at least six people gunned down at a bus shelter were laid out on stretchers on the street, their bags set nearby on the curb. Elsewhere, a woman knelt in the street and embraced a dead family member whose body was stretched out next to a pink motorcycle that lay on its side. The rider’s hand with a glove and a foot in a racing boot extended out from under the sheet.
In the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, just 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Gaza Strip, terrified residents who were huddled indoors said they could hear constant gunfire echoing off the buildings as firefights continued.
“With rockets we somehow feel safer, knowing that we have the Iron Dome (missile defense system) and our safe rooms. But knowing that terrorists are walking around communities is a different kind of fear,” said Mirjam Reijnen, a 42-year-old volunteer firefighter and mother of three in Nahal Oz.
In a televised address, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that Hamas had made “a grave mistake” and promised that “the state of Israel will win this war.”
Israel's military was bringing four divisions of troops as well as tanks to the Gaza border, joining 31 battalions already in the area, the spokesman Hagari said. A major question now was whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a densely populated enclave of more than 2 million people, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties.
Hamas said it had planned for a potentially long fight. “We are prepared for all options, including all-out war,” the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, told Al-Jazeera TV. “We are ready to do whatever is necessary for the dignity and freedom of our people.”
U.S. President Joe Biden condemned “this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza.” He spoke with Netanyahu and said Israel “has a right to defend itself and its people.” according to a White House statement.
Saudi Arabia, which has been in talks with the U.S. about normalizing relations with Israel, released a statement calling on both sides to exercise restraint. The kingdom said it had repeatedly warned about “the dangers of the situation exploding as a result of the continued occupation (and) the Palestinian people being deprived of their legitimate rights.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group congratulated Hamas, praising the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes.” The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas about the operation.
The attack comes at a time of historic division within Israel over Netanyahu’s proposal to overhaul the judiciary. Mass protests over the plan have sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli demonstrators into the streets and prompted hundreds of military reservists to avoid volunteer duty — turmoil that has raised fears over the military’s battlefield readiness and raised concerns about its deterrence over its enemies.
It also comes at a time of mounting tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, with the peace process effectively dead for years. Over the past year Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.
Israel has maintained a blockade over Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. The bitter enemies have fought four wars since then.
___
Adwan reported from Rafah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Josef Federman And Issam Adwan, The Associated Press
Sat, October 7, 2023
JERUSALEM (AP) — Under cover of a barrage of rockets, dozens of Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and into nearby Israeli towns, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday. A stunned Israel said it is now at war with Hamas and launched airstrikes in Gaza, vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price.”
In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gaza border. In some places, they roamed for hours, gunning down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response. Gunbattles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns.
Israel’s national rescue service said at least 200 people were killed and 1,100 wounded, making it the deadliest attack in Israel in decades. At least 198 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and at least 1,610 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The conflict threatened to escalate to an even deadlier stage with Israel’s vows of greater retaliation. Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers brought widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns. The situation is potentially more volatile now, with Israel’s far-right government stung by the security breach and with Palestinians in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza.
After nightfall, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza intensified, flattening several residential buildings in giant explosions, including a 14-story tower that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israeli forces fired a warning just before, and there were no reports of casualties.
Soon after, a Hamas rocket barrage into central Israel hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb, where two people were seriously injured.
The strength, sophistication and timing of the Saturday morning attack shocked Israelis. Hamas fighters used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing the long-blockaded Mediterranean territory, then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speed boats on the coast.
Bodies of dead Israeli civilians and Hamas militants were seen on streets of Israeli towns. Associated Press photos showed an abducted elderly Israeli woman being brought back into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle. Images showed fighters parading captured Israeli military vehicles through Gaza streets.
“We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass army mobilization. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.”
“The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” he added, promising that Israel would “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.”
The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, violence at Al Aqsa — the disputed Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount — increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians and growth of settlements.
“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message. He said the attack was only the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight. “Today the people are regaining their revolution.”
The Hamas incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, aiming to take back Israeli-occupied territories.
Comparisons to one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history sharpened criticism of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who had campaigned on more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. Political commentators lambasted the government over its failure to anticipate what appeared to be a Hamas attack unseen in its level of planning and coordination.
Asked by reporters how Hamas had managed to catch the army off guard, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, replied, “That’s a good question.”
The abduction of Israeli civilians and soldiers also raised a particularly thorny issue for Israel. Israel has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges in order to bring captive Israelis home.
Their number was not immediately known. Videos released by Hamas appeared to show at least three Israelis captured alive, and AP photos showed at least three civilians brought in Gaza, including the two women. Israeli television showed images of a young man stripped down to his pants being led on foot in a chokehold and reported that elderly women with dementia as well as workers from Thailand and the Philippines were among the captives.
The Israeli military confirmed that a number of Israelis had been taken captive. A spokesman for Hamas' military wing, Abu Obeida, said the group was holding dozens of Israeli soldiers captive in “safe places” and tunnels in the Gaza Strip. If true, the claim could set the stage for complicated negotiations on a swap with Israel, which is holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons.
The Hamas assault into southern Israel left a trail of civilians' bodies where they had encountered the advancing gunmen.
On the road outside the town of Sderot, a bloodied woman slumped dead in the seat of her car. Inside the town, bodies of at least six people gunned down at a bus shelter were laid out on stretchers on the street, their bags set nearby on the curb. Elsewhere, a woman knelt in the street and embraced a dead family member whose body was stretched out next to a pink motorcycle that lay on its side. The rider’s hand with a glove and a foot in a racing boot extended out from under the sheet.
In the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, just 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Gaza Strip, terrified residents who were huddled indoors said they could hear constant gunfire echoing off the buildings as firefights continued.
“With rockets we somehow feel safer, knowing that we have the Iron Dome (missile defense system) and our safe rooms. But knowing that terrorists are walking around communities is a different kind of fear,” said Mirjam Reijnen, a 42-year-old volunteer firefighter and mother of three in Nahal Oz.
In a televised address, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that Hamas had made “a grave mistake” and promised that “the state of Israel will win this war.”
Israel's military was bringing four divisions of troops as well as tanks to the Gaza border, joining 31 battalions already in the area, the spokesman Hagari said. A major question now was whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a densely populated enclave of more than 2 million people, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties.
Hamas said it had planned for a potentially long fight. “We are prepared for all options, including all-out war,” the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, told Al-Jazeera TV. “We are ready to do whatever is necessary for the dignity and freedom of our people.”
U.S. President Joe Biden condemned “this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza.” He spoke with Netanyahu and said Israel “has a right to defend itself and its people.” according to a White House statement.
Saudi Arabia, which has been in talks with the U.S. about normalizing relations with Israel, released a statement calling on both sides to exercise restraint. The kingdom said it had repeatedly warned about “the dangers of the situation exploding as a result of the continued occupation (and) the Palestinian people being deprived of their legitimate rights.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group congratulated Hamas, praising the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes.” The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas about the operation.
The attack comes at a time of historic division within Israel over Netanyahu’s proposal to overhaul the judiciary. Mass protests over the plan have sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli demonstrators into the streets and prompted hundreds of military reservists to avoid volunteer duty — turmoil that has raised fears over the military’s battlefield readiness and raised concerns about its deterrence over its enemies.
It also comes at a time of mounting tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, with the peace process effectively dead for years. Over the past year Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.
Israel has maintained a blockade over Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. The bitter enemies have fought four wars since then.
___
Adwan reported from Rafah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Josef Federman And Issam Adwan, The Associated Press
Palestinian fighters captured an Israeli tank and IDF soldiers amid unprecedented wave of attacks, reports say
Alia Shoaib
Sat, October 7, 2023
Palestinians take control of an Israeli tank after crossing the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images
Palestinian fighters appear to have captured an Israeli tank amid an unprecedented wave of attacks.
Videos circulating on social media show Palestinians celebrating on top of the tank as it burns.
Unconfirmed reports claim that Hamas has captured Israeli soldiers and taken them to the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian fighters appear to have captured an Israeli tank and set it on fire, according to videos circulating on social media.
The videos show Palestinians celebrating in front of and on top of the tank as it burns amid an unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas militants on Saturday.
One video appears to show the dead body of an Israeli soldier dragged out of the vehicle. Others appear to show injured soldiers being captured.
In another video, a man tells the camera in Arabic that the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, had kidnaped all Israeli soldiers inside the tank.
The videos were taken after Palestinians broke through a fence near the border with Israel, Al Arabiya reported.
Insider was unable to independently verify them.
Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, entering the country by "land, sea and air," an IDF spokesperson said.
At least 22 Israelis have died and over 300 have been injured, Israel's N12 news channel reported.
A Hamas-affiliated Telegram channel published multiple photos appearing to show dead Israeli soldiers lying in streets.
There have also been unconfirmed reports of IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians being captured by Hamas fighters and taken to Gaza.
A paramedic in Israel was also killed, and Hamas captured two ambulances, the spokesman for the Magen David Adom emergency service said, per The Times of Israel.
An IDF spokesperson said more than 2,200 rockets had been fired into Israel, while Hamas claimed over 5,000 rockets were launched.
The attacks on southern and central Israel are among the heaviest in years.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "we are at war" and Israel "will win" in a video message.
The IDF has carried out several air strikes on the Gaza Strip in response.
Alia Shoaib
Sat, October 7, 2023
Palestinians take control of an Israeli tank after crossing the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images
Palestinian fighters appear to have captured an Israeli tank amid an unprecedented wave of attacks.
Videos circulating on social media show Palestinians celebrating on top of the tank as it burns.
Unconfirmed reports claim that Hamas has captured Israeli soldiers and taken them to the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian fighters appear to have captured an Israeli tank and set it on fire, according to videos circulating on social media.
The videos show Palestinians celebrating in front of and on top of the tank as it burns amid an unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas militants on Saturday.
One video appears to show the dead body of an Israeli soldier dragged out of the vehicle. Others appear to show injured soldiers being captured.
In another video, a man tells the camera in Arabic that the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, had kidnaped all Israeli soldiers inside the tank.
The videos were taken after Palestinians broke through a fence near the border with Israel, Al Arabiya reported.
Insider was unable to independently verify them.
Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, entering the country by "land, sea and air," an IDF spokesperson said.
At least 22 Israelis have died and over 300 have been injured, Israel's N12 news channel reported.
A Hamas-affiliated Telegram channel published multiple photos appearing to show dead Israeli soldiers lying in streets.
There have also been unconfirmed reports of IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians being captured by Hamas fighters and taken to Gaza.
A paramedic in Israel was also killed, and Hamas captured two ambulances, the spokesman for the Magen David Adom emergency service said, per The Times of Israel.
An IDF spokesperson said more than 2,200 rockets had been fired into Israel, while Hamas claimed over 5,000 rockets were launched.
The attacks on southern and central Israel are among the heaviest in years.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "we are at war" and Israel "will win" in a video message.
The IDF has carried out several air strikes on the Gaza Strip in response.
Militants on paragliders and '5,000' rockets: How Hamas carried out deadly Israel attack
Sky News
Updated Sat, October 7, 2023
Hamas has launched one of its largest attacks on Israel in years.
The militant group began its offensive - which it named "Operation Al Aqsa Storm" - on Saturday with a barrage of missiles from Gaza followed by militants crossing the border.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared "we are at war" and launched "Operation Swords of Iron".
Here is what we know so far about how the attack unfolded.
Israel-Gaza latest: Hamas fighters on the ground after '5,000 rockets' fired
7am: Hamas launches rockets
The operation started just before 7am local time and came without warning.
The first Israelis knew about it was via air raid sirens in southern areas near the Gaza border.
Explosions were reported in Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Yavne and Kfar Aviv, while large plumes of black smoke were seen rising from a number of Israeli towns.
Israeli officials said around 2,500 rockets were fired, though Hamas's military commander Mohammad Deif claimed the figure was double that.
7.30am: Clashes on the Gaza border
As the rockets rained down, Hamas militants crossed into Israel using paragliders, boats and on foot.
Reports emerged of armed clashes along the separation fence between Gaza and Israel, near the southern town of Khan Younis.
Video filmed on Saturday morning and verified by Sky News showed two Hamas militants flying across the border into Israel.
The footage emerged as Hamas released a video showing armed militants training to use the paragliders in preparation for the attack.
8am: Hamas confirms responsibility
Around 8am local time, Hamas claimed responsibility and announced it had started a new offensive against Israel.
The group also called on armed groups in Lebanon to join the fighting.
8.30am: Israel calls up reservists and begins air strikes
Around 30 minutes later, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant approved the call-up of military reservists, while the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIL) said its militants had joined the attack.
Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed troops had clashed with Hamas militants at Erez Crossing - also known as the Beit Hanoun Crossing - at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
They also confirmed that fighting had taken place at the Zikim base to the south of Ashkelon.
Footage then emerged of an Israeli tank on fire at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis and, later, an Israeli armoured vehicle being driven into Shejaiya in Gaza.
Around this time, the IDF announced retaliatory strikes on Gaza and said an "extensive" mobilisation process had begun.
Explosions were reported across central Gaza and in Gaza City.
"Numerous IDF soldiers, including special forces, have been dispatched to the area surrounding the Gaza Strip and are operating in a number of different locations in the division in order to protect the residents of southern Israel," said a statement.
"Dozens of IDF fighter jets struck a number of targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip."
11am: Netanyahu says Israel 'at war'
At around 11am, Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the country in a statement, declaring: "We are at war and we will win."
"Our enemy will pay a price the type of which it has never known," he added.
Sky News
Updated Sat, October 7, 2023
Hamas has launched one of its largest attacks on Israel in years.
The militant group began its offensive - which it named "Operation Al Aqsa Storm" - on Saturday with a barrage of missiles from Gaza followed by militants crossing the border.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared "we are at war" and launched "Operation Swords of Iron".
Here is what we know so far about how the attack unfolded.
Israel-Gaza latest: Hamas fighters on the ground after '5,000 rockets' fired
7am: Hamas launches rockets
The operation started just before 7am local time and came without warning.
The first Israelis knew about it was via air raid sirens in southern areas near the Gaza border.
Explosions were reported in Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Yavne and Kfar Aviv, while large plumes of black smoke were seen rising from a number of Israeli towns.
Israeli officials said around 2,500 rockets were fired, though Hamas's military commander Mohammad Deif claimed the figure was double that.
7.30am: Clashes on the Gaza border
As the rockets rained down, Hamas militants crossed into Israel using paragliders, boats and on foot.
Reports emerged of armed clashes along the separation fence between Gaza and Israel, near the southern town of Khan Younis.
Video filmed on Saturday morning and verified by Sky News showed two Hamas militants flying across the border into Israel.
The footage emerged as Hamas released a video showing armed militants training to use the paragliders in preparation for the attack.
8am: Hamas confirms responsibility
Around 8am local time, Hamas claimed responsibility and announced it had started a new offensive against Israel.
The group also called on armed groups in Lebanon to join the fighting.
8.30am: Israel calls up reservists and begins air strikes
Around 30 minutes later, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant approved the call-up of military reservists, while the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIL) said its militants had joined the attack.
Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed troops had clashed with Hamas militants at Erez Crossing - also known as the Beit Hanoun Crossing - at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
They also confirmed that fighting had taken place at the Zikim base to the south of Ashkelon.
Footage then emerged of an Israeli tank on fire at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis and, later, an Israeli armoured vehicle being driven into Shejaiya in Gaza.
Around this time, the IDF announced retaliatory strikes on Gaza and said an "extensive" mobilisation process had begun.
Explosions were reported across central Gaza and in Gaza City.
"Numerous IDF soldiers, including special forces, have been dispatched to the area surrounding the Gaza Strip and are operating in a number of different locations in the division in order to protect the residents of southern Israel," said a statement.
"Dozens of IDF fighter jets struck a number of targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip."
11am: Netanyahu says Israel 'at war'
At around 11am, Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the country in a statement, declaring: "We are at war and we will win."
"Our enemy will pay a price the type of which it has never known," he added.
Hostages taken as Hamas launches biggest attack on Israel in years - with strikes hitting Gaza in response
Sky News
Sat, October 7, 2023
At least 232 Palestinians have been killed after Israeli forces retaliated to a deadly attack by Hamas.
The number of dead inside Israel currently stands at 250, according to local media reports.
Some 1,452 Israelis have been left wounded - and civilians and soldiers taken hostage, Israeli officials confirmed, after thousands of rockets were first launched from Gaza this morning.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that at least 1,610 have been wounded in Gaza.
The scale of injuries and numbers of fatalities so far makes the attack the deadliest in the region for years.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is "at war" and "will win". "Our enemy will pay a price the type of which it has never known," he said in a statement.
The military says it is currently engaged in fighting with Hamas at 22 locations across southern Israel.
Hamas's political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh claims the group is "on the verge of a great victory and clear conquest on the Gaza front".
Airstrike flattens high-rise in Gaza; follow Israel-Gaza latest
Militants breach usually heavily-guarded border
In a highly unusual development, Hamas fighters have also been seen crossing the heavily-guarded Israeli border using paragliders, in an apparent failure of the intelligence services.
As rockets struck Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Yavne and Kfar Aviv on Saturday morning, militants breached the border by sea and on foot.
Security camera footage shows them entering the Israeli town of Sderot, a mile from Gaza, in pick-up trucks and on motorbikes.
Retaliating to the incursion, the Israeli air force confirmed dozens of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fighter jets struck a number of Hamas military compounds and operational command centres in the Gaza Strip.
The house of Hamas's Gaza chief Yehya Al-Sinwar in the south of the Gaza Strip was targeted, but there were no reports of any casualties.
Palestine's President Mahmoud Abbas reacted by saying his people have the right to defend themselves against the "terror of settlers and occupation of troops".
Israelis taken hostage
The Israeli military has confirmed that Hamas militants have taken both civilians and soldiers hostage in Gaza - but did not reveal how many.
According to local news channel N12, 50 Israelis are being held by Hamas gunmen in Beeri Kibbutz near the Gaza border.
Social media footage shows a number of people, including an elderly Israeli woman, being paraded through Gaza.
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said soldiers were among the dead, but described reports that high-ranking commanders have been taken hostage as "fake news".
Senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri, claimed the group had enough captives to make Israel free all its Palestinian prisoners.
Read more:
Explainer: How Hamas attack unfolded
Analysis: Unprecedented attack has caused chaos
Sunak says Israel has 'right to defend itself'
In Israel, cars were set on fire and buildings were damaged, with plumes of smoke billowing from tower blocks.
As air raid sirens sounded across south and central regions, residents living along the border were instructed to stay indoors.
A rescue agency said a 70-year-old woman had been critically injured when a rocket hit a building in southern Israel.
Israel claims 3,500 Hamas rockets have been fired in total, including a salvo of 500 towards Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, while the group's military commander Mohammad Deif put the figure at 5,000.
The Israeli police force said four people were injured as a result of the Tel Aviv attacks.
The IDF warned "the Hamas terror group will pay a very heavy price" saying it was launching a "large-scale operation" called "Swords of Iron" in response to the combined rocket and infantry attack.
Emergency meeting despite Shabbat
Mr Netanyahu convened a meeting of his security cabinet in Tel Aviv, despite the Shabbat day of rest, where he stated three objectives after declaring his country is at war.
He said: "Our first objective is to clear out the hostile forces that infiltrated our territory and restore the security and quiet to the communities that have been attacked.
"The second objective, at the same time, is to exact an immense price from the enemy, within the Gaza Strip as well. The third objective is to reinforce other fronts so that nobody should mistakenly join this war."
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant added that Hamas had "made a grave mistake this morning and launched a war against the State of Israel".
In response, energy minister Israel Katz also signed an order cutting off electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip.
'We must set the earth on fire under the occupiers'
Speaking on Hamas radio, its commander Mr Deif said: "This is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on earth."
He said the attack was the beginning of "Operation Al Aqsa Storm" and was in response to Israeli violence in the West Bank, Gaza, and around Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem.
"Today the people are regaining their revolution," he said in the recorded message. "We must set the earth on fire under the feet of the occupiers."
Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said it had joined the attack, while Hamas also called on armed groups in Lebanon to get involved.
Global leaders 'utterly condemn act of terror'
Governments around the world have condemned the attacks on Israel including the US, France, and Germany.
Brazil, which currently has the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, said it would convene an emergency meeting to discuss the major escalation.
The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has said it is also enhancing its presence near the border with Israel as a result of the violence.
US President Joe Biden told a White House press conference that the US will "not ever fail to have her [Israel's] back".
British PM Rishi Sunak said: "I am shocked by this morning's attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli citizens. Israel has an absolute right to defend itself. We're in contact with Israeli authorities, and British nationals in Israel should follow travel advice."
The UK's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly added: "The UK unequivocally condemns the horrific attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians. The UK will always support Israel's right to defend itself."
He denounced the Palestinian movement as "terrorists" and "not fighters [nor] militants", while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer "utterly condemn[ed]" the attacks as "an act of terror".
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been at war with Russia since February 2022, said: "Israel's right to self-defence cannot be questioned" and extended his condolences to "all whose family and friends lost their lives in [the Hamas] terrorist attack."
Head of the EU commission Ursula von der Leyen said the attack was "terrorism in its most despicable form" and that "Israel has the right to defend itself against such heinous attacks".
Meanwhile, Iran has expressed support for the Palestinian assault, one of its local news agencies ISNA reported.
"We congratulate the Palestinian fighters," it quoted Iranian military commander Rahim Safavi, who added: "We will stand by the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem."
The attacks come after weeks of heightened tensions along Israel's volatile border with Gaza, and heavy fighting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Sky News
Sat, October 7, 2023
At least 232 Palestinians have been killed after Israeli forces retaliated to a deadly attack by Hamas.
The number of dead inside Israel currently stands at 250, according to local media reports.
Some 1,452 Israelis have been left wounded - and civilians and soldiers taken hostage, Israeli officials confirmed, after thousands of rockets were first launched from Gaza this morning.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that at least 1,610 have been wounded in Gaza.
The scale of injuries and numbers of fatalities so far makes the attack the deadliest in the region for years.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is "at war" and "will win". "Our enemy will pay a price the type of which it has never known," he said in a statement.
The military says it is currently engaged in fighting with Hamas at 22 locations across southern Israel.
Hamas's political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh claims the group is "on the verge of a great victory and clear conquest on the Gaza front".
Airstrike flattens high-rise in Gaza; follow Israel-Gaza latest
Militants breach usually heavily-guarded border
In a highly unusual development, Hamas fighters have also been seen crossing the heavily-guarded Israeli border using paragliders, in an apparent failure of the intelligence services.
As rockets struck Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Yavne and Kfar Aviv on Saturday morning, militants breached the border by sea and on foot.
Security camera footage shows them entering the Israeli town of Sderot, a mile from Gaza, in pick-up trucks and on motorbikes.
Retaliating to the incursion, the Israeli air force confirmed dozens of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fighter jets struck a number of Hamas military compounds and operational command centres in the Gaza Strip.
The house of Hamas's Gaza chief Yehya Al-Sinwar in the south of the Gaza Strip was targeted, but there were no reports of any casualties.
Palestine's President Mahmoud Abbas reacted by saying his people have the right to defend themselves against the "terror of settlers and occupation of troops".
Israelis taken hostage
The Israeli military has confirmed that Hamas militants have taken both civilians and soldiers hostage in Gaza - but did not reveal how many.
According to local news channel N12, 50 Israelis are being held by Hamas gunmen in Beeri Kibbutz near the Gaza border.
Social media footage shows a number of people, including an elderly Israeli woman, being paraded through Gaza.
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said soldiers were among the dead, but described reports that high-ranking commanders have been taken hostage as "fake news".
Senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri, claimed the group had enough captives to make Israel free all its Palestinian prisoners.
Read more:
Explainer: How Hamas attack unfolded
Analysis: Unprecedented attack has caused chaos
Sunak says Israel has 'right to defend itself'
In Israel, cars were set on fire and buildings were damaged, with plumes of smoke billowing from tower blocks.
As air raid sirens sounded across south and central regions, residents living along the border were instructed to stay indoors.
A rescue agency said a 70-year-old woman had been critically injured when a rocket hit a building in southern Israel.
Israel claims 3,500 Hamas rockets have been fired in total, including a salvo of 500 towards Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, while the group's military commander Mohammad Deif put the figure at 5,000.
The Israeli police force said four people were injured as a result of the Tel Aviv attacks.
The IDF warned "the Hamas terror group will pay a very heavy price" saying it was launching a "large-scale operation" called "Swords of Iron" in response to the combined rocket and infantry attack.
Emergency meeting despite Shabbat
Mr Netanyahu convened a meeting of his security cabinet in Tel Aviv, despite the Shabbat day of rest, where he stated three objectives after declaring his country is at war.
He said: "Our first objective is to clear out the hostile forces that infiltrated our territory and restore the security and quiet to the communities that have been attacked.
"The second objective, at the same time, is to exact an immense price from the enemy, within the Gaza Strip as well. The third objective is to reinforce other fronts so that nobody should mistakenly join this war."
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant added that Hamas had "made a grave mistake this morning and launched a war against the State of Israel".
In response, energy minister Israel Katz also signed an order cutting off electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip.
'We must set the earth on fire under the occupiers'
Speaking on Hamas radio, its commander Mr Deif said: "This is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on earth."
He said the attack was the beginning of "Operation Al Aqsa Storm" and was in response to Israeli violence in the West Bank, Gaza, and around Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem.
"Today the people are regaining their revolution," he said in the recorded message. "We must set the earth on fire under the feet of the occupiers."
Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said it had joined the attack, while Hamas also called on armed groups in Lebanon to get involved.
Global leaders 'utterly condemn act of terror'
Governments around the world have condemned the attacks on Israel including the US, France, and Germany.
Brazil, which currently has the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, said it would convene an emergency meeting to discuss the major escalation.
The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has said it is also enhancing its presence near the border with Israel as a result of the violence.
US President Joe Biden told a White House press conference that the US will "not ever fail to have her [Israel's] back".
British PM Rishi Sunak said: "I am shocked by this morning's attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli citizens. Israel has an absolute right to defend itself. We're in contact with Israeli authorities, and British nationals in Israel should follow travel advice."
The UK's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly added: "The UK unequivocally condemns the horrific attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians. The UK will always support Israel's right to defend itself."
He denounced the Palestinian movement as "terrorists" and "not fighters [nor] militants", while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer "utterly condemn[ed]" the attacks as "an act of terror".
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been at war with Russia since February 2022, said: "Israel's right to self-defence cannot be questioned" and extended his condolences to "all whose family and friends lost their lives in [the Hamas] terrorist attack."
Head of the EU commission Ursula von der Leyen said the attack was "terrorism in its most despicable form" and that "Israel has the right to defend itself against such heinous attacks".
Meanwhile, Iran has expressed support for the Palestinian assault, one of its local news agencies ISNA reported.
"We congratulate the Palestinian fighters," it quoted Iranian military commander Rahim Safavi, who added: "We will stand by the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem."
The attacks come after weeks of heightened tensions along Israel's volatile border with Gaza, and heavy fighting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Hamas surprise attack out of Gaza stuns Israel and leaves hundreds dead in fighting, retaliation
Sat, October 7, 2023
JERUSALEM (AP) — Backed by a barrage of rockets, dozens of Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and into nearby Israeli towns, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday. A stunned Israel said it is now at war with Hamas and launched airstrikes in Gaza, vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price.”
In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gaza border. In some places, they roamed for hours, gunning down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response. Gunbattles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns.
Israel’s national rescue service said at least 200 people were killed and 1,100 wounded, making it the deadliest attack in Israel in decades. At least 198 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and at least 1,610 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Hamas fighters took an unknown number of civilians and soldiers captive into Gaza, a deeply sensitive issue for Israel.
The conflict threatened to escalate to an even deadlier stage with Israel’s vows of greater retaliation. Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers brought widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns. The situation is potentially more volatile now, with Israel’s far-right government stung by the security breach and with Palestinians in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza.
After nightfall, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza intensified, flattening several residential buildings in giant explosions, including a 14-story tower that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israeli forces fired a warning just before, and there were no reports of casualties.
Soon after, a Hamas rocket barrage into central Israel hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb, where two people were seriously injured. Throughout the day, Hamas fired more than 3,500 rockets, the Israeli military said.
The strength, sophistication and timing of the Saturday morning attack shocked Israelis. Hamas fighters used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing the Mediterranean territory, then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speed boats on the coast.
In some towns, a trail of civilians’ bodies lay where they had encountered the advancing gunmen. On the road outside the town of Sderot, a bloodied woman slumped dead in the seat of her car. At least nine people gunned down at a bus shelter in the town were laid out on stretchers on the street, their bags still on the curb nearby. One woman, screaming, embraced the body of a family member sprawled under a sheet next to a toppled motorcycle; as she was led away, she picked up the dead person’s helmet from the ground nearby.
Associated Press photos showed an abducted elderly Israeli woman being brought back into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle. Images also showed fighters parading captured Israeli military vehicles through Gaza streets.
“We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass army mobilization. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.”
“The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” he added, promising that Israel would “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.”
The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, violence at Al Aqsa — the disputed Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount — increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians and growth of settlements.
“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message. He said the attack was only the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight. “Today the people are regaining their revolution.”
The Hamas incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, aiming to take back Israeli-occupied territories.
Comparisons to one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history sharpened criticism of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who had campaigned on more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. Political commentators lambasted the government over its failure to anticipate what appeared to be a Hamas attack unseen in its level of planning and coordination.
Asked by reporters how Hamas had managed to catch the army off guard, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, replied, “That’s a good question.”
The abduction of Israeli civilians and soldiers also raised a particularly thorny issue for Israel, which has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges to bring captive Israelis home.
Hamas’ military wing claimed it was holding dozens of Israeli soldiers captive in “safe places” and tunnels in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military confirmed that a number of Israelis were abducted but would not give a figure. If true, the claim could set the stage for complicated negotiations on a swap with Israel, which is holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons.
An unknown number of civilians were also taken. AP journalists saw four taken from the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, including two women. In Gaza, a black jeep pulled to a stop and, when the rear door opened, a young Israeli woman stumbled out, bleeding from the head and with her hands tied behind her back. A man waving a gun in the air grabbed her by the hair and pushed her into the vehicle’s back seat. Israeli TV reported that workers from Thailand and the Philippines were also among the captives.
In the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, just 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Gaza Strip, terrified residents who were huddled indoors said they could hear constant gunfire echoing off the buildings as firefights continued.
“With rockets we somehow feel safer, knowing that we have the Iron Dome (missile defense system) and our safe rooms. But knowing that terrorists are walking around communities is a different kind of fear,” said Mirjam Reijnen, a 42-year-old volunteer firefighter and mother of three in Nahal Oz.
A major question now was whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a densely populated enclave of more than 2 million people, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties.
Israel’s military was bringing four divisions of troops as well as tanks to the Gaza border, joining 31 battalions already in the area, the spokesman Hagari said.
In Gaza, much of the population was thrown into darkness after nightfall, as electrical supplies from Israel – which supplies almost all the territories’ power – was cut off.
Hamas said it had planned for a potentially long fight. “We are prepared for all options, including all-out war,” the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, told Al-Jazeera TV. “We are ready to do whatever is necessary for the dignity and freedom of our people.”
U.S. President Joe Biden condemned “this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza.” He spoke with Netanyahu and said Israel “has a right to defend itself and its people.” according to a White House statement.
Saudi Arabia, which has been in talks with the U.S. about normalizing relations with Israel, called on both sides to exercise restraint. The kingdom said it had repeatedly warned about the danger of “the situation exploding as a result of the continued occupation (and) the Palestinian people being deprived of their legitimate rights.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group congratulated Hamas, praising the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes.” The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas about the operation.
The attack comes at a time of historic division within Israel over Netanyahu’s proposal to overhaul the judiciary. Mass protests over the plan have sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli demonstrators into the streets and prompted hundreds of military reservists to avoid volunteer duty — turmoil that has raised fears over the military’s battlefield readiness and raised concerns about its deterrence over its enemies.
It also comes at a time of mounting tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, with the peace process effectively dead for years. Over the past year Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.
Israel has maintained a blockade over Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. The bitter enemies have fought four wars since then.
___
Adwan reported from Rafah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Josef Federman And Issam Adwan, The Associated Press
Israel says at 'war' after rocket barrages, militant infiltration
RFI
Fri, October 6, 2023
© MAHMUD HAMS / AFP
Palestinian militants have begun a "war" against Israel, the country's defence minister said Saturday after a barrage of rockets were fired and fighters from the Palestinian enclave infiltrated Israel, a major escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Violence between Israel and the Palestinians has been surging for almost two years, with fatalities in the occupied West Bank hitting a scale not seen in years.
At least two people were killed in Israel, officials said.
Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Palestinian militant group Hamas has "launched a war against the State of Israel."
"Troops are fighting against the enemy at every location," he said in a statement.
AFP journalists said Israel's military began air strikes on Gaza, following the rocket barrage from inside the territory which is sealed off from Israel by a militarised border barrier.
"Dozens of IDF fighter jets are currently striking a number of targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation in the Gaza Strip," the military said.
Rockets had earlier streamed across the sky repeatedly after the first launches from multiple locations across the Palestinian territory from 6:30 am (0330 GMT), AFP journalists in Gaza City reported.
The armed wing of Hamas, which controls Gaza, said it was behind the aerial assault, saying its militants had launched thousands of rockets and its fighters seized an Israeli tank.
Israel's army did not immediately comment on the tank claim when contacted by AFP.
Israeli security chiefs convened over the violence, which occurred on Shabbat and during a Jewish holiday.
(AFP)
Head of Israeli council killed by Hamas while defending his community, as Palestinian fighters pour into southern Israel
Rebecca Rommen
Sat, October 7, 2023
The mayor of a southern Israeli council was killed while defending his community.
Ofir Liebstein, the head of Sha'ar Hanegev Council, died in an exchange of fire with Hamas militants.
At least 22 people have been killed in the carnage, according to the latest reports.
Ofir Liebstein, the head of Sha'ar Hanegev Council was killed during fighting with Hamas militants this morning, The Times of Israel reports.
"Ofir was killed when he went to defend a town during the terrorist attack," the report said, quoting a statement from the Council.
Liebstein was killed in an exchange of fire with Hamas militants as a barrage of rockets pounded southern Israel and reports of Palestinian fighters pouring across the border from Gaza.
The Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council mayor was defending his community when he was killed. Yossi Keren, Deputy Head of the Council, is currently filling his place, The Jerusalem Post reports.
Palestinian militants are infiltrating Israeli territory by land, sea, and even paragliders.
According to the latest CNN report, at least 22 people have been killed.
Hamas claims to have kidnapped five Israel Defense Forces soldiers, which the IDF has not confirmed, per Business Standard.
Cars are on fire after they were hit by rockets from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, Israel, on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.AP
An IDF spokesperson said more than 2,200 rockets had been fired into Israel, while Hamas claimed over 5,000 rockets were unleashed.
"We are at war, and we will win," Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a social media video addressing Israelis.
"The enemy will pay a price it has never known," he added.
Sirens have been blaring for the past five hours since Hamas launched its surprise coordinated attack on Israel. The rocket bombardment struck southern Israel, but sirens are reaching as far north as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, per CNN.
Sat, October 7, 2023
JERUSALEM (AP) — Backed by a barrage of rockets, dozens of Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and into nearby Israeli towns, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday. A stunned Israel said it is now at war with Hamas and launched airstrikes in Gaza, vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price.”
In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gaza border. In some places, they roamed for hours, gunning down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response. Gunbattles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns.
Israel’s national rescue service said at least 200 people were killed and 1,100 wounded, making it the deadliest attack in Israel in decades. At least 198 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and at least 1,610 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Hamas fighters took an unknown number of civilians and soldiers captive into Gaza, a deeply sensitive issue for Israel.
The conflict threatened to escalate to an even deadlier stage with Israel’s vows of greater retaliation. Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers brought widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns. The situation is potentially more volatile now, with Israel’s far-right government stung by the security breach and with Palestinians in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza.
After nightfall, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza intensified, flattening several residential buildings in giant explosions, including a 14-story tower that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israeli forces fired a warning just before, and there were no reports of casualties.
Soon after, a Hamas rocket barrage into central Israel hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb, where two people were seriously injured. Throughout the day, Hamas fired more than 3,500 rockets, the Israeli military said.
The strength, sophistication and timing of the Saturday morning attack shocked Israelis. Hamas fighters used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing the Mediterranean territory, then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speed boats on the coast.
In some towns, a trail of civilians’ bodies lay where they had encountered the advancing gunmen. On the road outside the town of Sderot, a bloodied woman slumped dead in the seat of her car. At least nine people gunned down at a bus shelter in the town were laid out on stretchers on the street, their bags still on the curb nearby. One woman, screaming, embraced the body of a family member sprawled under a sheet next to a toppled motorcycle; as she was led away, she picked up the dead person’s helmet from the ground nearby.
Associated Press photos showed an abducted elderly Israeli woman being brought back into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle. Images also showed fighters parading captured Israeli military vehicles through Gaza streets.
“We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass army mobilization. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.”
“The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” he added, promising that Israel would “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.”
The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, violence at Al Aqsa — the disputed Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount — increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians and growth of settlements.
“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message. He said the attack was only the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight. “Today the people are regaining their revolution.”
The Hamas incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, aiming to take back Israeli-occupied territories.
Comparisons to one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history sharpened criticism of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who had campaigned on more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. Political commentators lambasted the government over its failure to anticipate what appeared to be a Hamas attack unseen in its level of planning and coordination.
Asked by reporters how Hamas had managed to catch the army off guard, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, replied, “That’s a good question.”
The abduction of Israeli civilians and soldiers also raised a particularly thorny issue for Israel, which has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges to bring captive Israelis home.
Hamas’ military wing claimed it was holding dozens of Israeli soldiers captive in “safe places” and tunnels in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military confirmed that a number of Israelis were abducted but would not give a figure. If true, the claim could set the stage for complicated negotiations on a swap with Israel, which is holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons.
An unknown number of civilians were also taken. AP journalists saw four taken from the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, including two women. In Gaza, a black jeep pulled to a stop and, when the rear door opened, a young Israeli woman stumbled out, bleeding from the head and with her hands tied behind her back. A man waving a gun in the air grabbed her by the hair and pushed her into the vehicle’s back seat. Israeli TV reported that workers from Thailand and the Philippines were also among the captives.
In the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, just 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Gaza Strip, terrified residents who were huddled indoors said they could hear constant gunfire echoing off the buildings as firefights continued.
“With rockets we somehow feel safer, knowing that we have the Iron Dome (missile defense system) and our safe rooms. But knowing that terrorists are walking around communities is a different kind of fear,” said Mirjam Reijnen, a 42-year-old volunteer firefighter and mother of three in Nahal Oz.
A major question now was whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a densely populated enclave of more than 2 million people, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties.
Israel’s military was bringing four divisions of troops as well as tanks to the Gaza border, joining 31 battalions already in the area, the spokesman Hagari said.
In Gaza, much of the population was thrown into darkness after nightfall, as electrical supplies from Israel – which supplies almost all the territories’ power – was cut off.
Hamas said it had planned for a potentially long fight. “We are prepared for all options, including all-out war,” the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, told Al-Jazeera TV. “We are ready to do whatever is necessary for the dignity and freedom of our people.”
U.S. President Joe Biden condemned “this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza.” He spoke with Netanyahu and said Israel “has a right to defend itself and its people.” according to a White House statement.
Saudi Arabia, which has been in talks with the U.S. about normalizing relations with Israel, called on both sides to exercise restraint. The kingdom said it had repeatedly warned about the danger of “the situation exploding as a result of the continued occupation (and) the Palestinian people being deprived of their legitimate rights.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group congratulated Hamas, praising the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes.” The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas about the operation.
The attack comes at a time of historic division within Israel over Netanyahu’s proposal to overhaul the judiciary. Mass protests over the plan have sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli demonstrators into the streets and prompted hundreds of military reservists to avoid volunteer duty — turmoil that has raised fears over the military’s battlefield readiness and raised concerns about its deterrence over its enemies.
It also comes at a time of mounting tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, with the peace process effectively dead for years. Over the past year Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.
Israel has maintained a blockade over Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. The bitter enemies have fought four wars since then.
___
Adwan reported from Rafah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Josef Federman And Issam Adwan, The Associated Press
Israel says at 'war' after rocket barrages, militant infiltration
RFI
Fri, October 6, 2023
© MAHMUD HAMS / AFP
Palestinian militants have begun a "war" against Israel, the country's defence minister said Saturday after a barrage of rockets were fired and fighters from the Palestinian enclave infiltrated Israel, a major escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Violence between Israel and the Palestinians has been surging for almost two years, with fatalities in the occupied West Bank hitting a scale not seen in years.
At least two people were killed in Israel, officials said.
Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Palestinian militant group Hamas has "launched a war against the State of Israel."
"Troops are fighting against the enemy at every location," he said in a statement.
AFP journalists said Israel's military began air strikes on Gaza, following the rocket barrage from inside the territory which is sealed off from Israel by a militarised border barrier.
"Dozens of IDF fighter jets are currently striking a number of targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation in the Gaza Strip," the military said.
Rockets had earlier streamed across the sky repeatedly after the first launches from multiple locations across the Palestinian territory from 6:30 am (0330 GMT), AFP journalists in Gaza City reported.
The armed wing of Hamas, which controls Gaza, said it was behind the aerial assault, saying its militants had launched thousands of rockets and its fighters seized an Israeli tank.
Israel's army did not immediately comment on the tank claim when contacted by AFP.
Israeli security chiefs convened over the violence, which occurred on Shabbat and during a Jewish holiday.
(AFP)
Head of Israeli council killed by Hamas while defending his community, as Palestinian fighters pour into southern Israel
Rebecca Rommen
Sat, October 7, 2023
The mayor of a southern Israeli council was killed while defending his community.
Ofir Liebstein, the head of Sha'ar Hanegev Council, died in an exchange of fire with Hamas militants.
At least 22 people have been killed in the carnage, according to the latest reports.
Ofir Liebstein, the head of Sha'ar Hanegev Council was killed during fighting with Hamas militants this morning, The Times of Israel reports.
"Ofir was killed when he went to defend a town during the terrorist attack," the report said, quoting a statement from the Council.
Liebstein was killed in an exchange of fire with Hamas militants as a barrage of rockets pounded southern Israel and reports of Palestinian fighters pouring across the border from Gaza.
The Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council mayor was defending his community when he was killed. Yossi Keren, Deputy Head of the Council, is currently filling his place, The Jerusalem Post reports.
Palestinian militants are infiltrating Israeli territory by land, sea, and even paragliders.
According to the latest CNN report, at least 22 people have been killed.
Hamas claims to have kidnapped five Israel Defense Forces soldiers, which the IDF has not confirmed, per Business Standard.
Cars are on fire after they were hit by rockets from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, Israel, on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.AP
An IDF spokesperson said more than 2,200 rockets had been fired into Israel, while Hamas claimed over 5,000 rockets were unleashed.
"We are at war, and we will win," Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a social media video addressing Israelis.
"The enemy will pay a price it has never known," he added.
Sirens have been blaring for the past five hours since Hamas launched its surprise coordinated attack on Israel. The rocket bombardment struck southern Israel, but sirens are reaching as far north as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, per CNN.
Hamas surprise attack out of Gaza stuns Israel and leaves hundreds dead in fighting, retaliation
A ball of fire and smoke rise from an explosion on a Palestinian apartment tower following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday.
Palestinians celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis southern Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday.
A ball of fire and smoke rise from an explosion on a Palestinian apartment tower following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday.
Palestinians celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis southern Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday.
(AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah)
JOSEF FEDERMAN and ISSAM ADWAN
Updated Sat, October 7, 2023
JERUSALEM (AP) — Backed by a barrage of rockets, dozens of Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and into nearby Israeli towns, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday. A stunned Israel said it is now at war with Hamas and launched airstrikes in Gaza, vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price.”
In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gaza border. In some places, they roamed for hours, gunning down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response. Gunbattles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns.
Israel’s national rescue service said at least 200 people were killed and 1,100 wounded, making it the deadliest attack in Israel in decades. At least 198 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and at least 1,610 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Hamas fighters took an unknown number of civilians and soldiers captive into Gaza, a deeply sensitive issue for Israel.
The conflict threatened to escalate to an even deadlier stage with Israel’s vows of greater retaliation. Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers brought widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns. The situation is potentially more volatile now, with Israel’s far-right government stung by the security breach and with Palestinians in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza.
After nightfall, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza intensified, flattening several residential buildings in giant explosions, including a 14-story tower that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israeli forces fired a warning just before, and there were no reports of casualties.
Soon after, a Hamas rocket barrage into central Israel hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb, where two people were seriously injured. Throughout the day, Hamas fired more than 3,500 rockets, the Israeli military said.
The strength, sophistication and timing of the Saturday morning attack shocked Israelis. Hamas fighters used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing the Mediterranean territory, then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speed boats on the coast.
In some towns, a trail of civilians’ bodies lay where they had encountered the advancing gunmen. On the road outside the town of Sderot, a bloodied woman slumped dead in the seat of her car. At least nine people gunned down at a bus shelter in the town were laid out on stretchers on the street, their bags still on the curb nearby. One woman, screaming, embraced the body of a family member sprawled under a sheet next to a toppled motorcycle; as she was led away, she picked up the dead person’s helmet from the ground nearby.
Associated Press photos showed an abducted elderly Israeli woman being brought back into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle. Images also showed fighters parading captured Israeli military vehicles through Gaza streets.
“We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass army mobilization. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.”
“The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” he added, promising that Israel would “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.”
The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, violence at Al Aqsa — the disputed Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount — increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians and growth of settlements.
“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message. He said the attack was only the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight. “Today the people are regaining their revolution.”
The Hamas incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, aiming to take back Israeli-occupied territories.
Comparisons to one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history sharpened criticism of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who had campaigned on more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. Political commentators lambasted the government over its failure to anticipate what appeared to be a Hamas attack unseen in its level of planning and coordination.
Asked by reporters how Hamas had managed to catch the army off guard, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, replied, “That’s a good question.”
The abduction of Israeli civilians and soldiers also raised a particularly thorny issue for Israel, which has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges to bring captive Israelis home.
Hamas’ military wing claimed it was holding dozens of Israeli soldiers captive in “safe places” and tunnels in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military confirmed that a number of Israelis were abducted but would not give a figure. If true, the claim could set the stage for complicated negotiations on a swap with Israel, which is holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons.
An unknown number of civilians were also taken. AP journalists saw four taken from the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, including two women. In Gaza, a black jeep pulled to a stop and, when the rear door opened, a young Israeli woman stumbled out, bleeding from the head and with her hands tied behind her back. A man waving a gun in the air grabbed her by the hair and pushed her into the vehicle’s back seat. Israeli TV reported that workers from Thailand and the Philippines were also among the captives.
In the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, just 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Gaza Strip, terrified residents who were huddled indoors said they could hear constant gunfire echoing off the buildings as firefights continued.
“With rockets we somehow feel safer, knowing that we have the Iron Dome (missile defense system) and our safe rooms. But knowing that terrorists are walking around communities is a different kind of fear,” said Mirjam Reijnen, a 42-year-old volunteer firefighter and mother of three in Nahal Oz.
A major question now was whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a densely populated enclave of more than 2 million people, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties.
Israel’s military was bringing four divisions of troops as well as tanks to the Gaza border, joining 31 battalions already in the area, the spokesman Hagari said.
In Gaza, much of the population was thrown into darkness after nightfall, as electrical supplies from Israel – which supplies almost all the territories’ power – was cut off.
Hamas said it had planned for a potentially long fight. “We are prepared for all options, including all-out war,” the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, told Al-Jazeera TV. “We are ready to do whatever is necessary for the dignity and freedom of our people.”
U.S. President Joe Biden condemned “this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza.” He spoke with Netanyahu and said Israel “has a right to defend itself and its people.” according to a White House statement.
Saudi Arabia, which has been in talks with the U.S. about normalizing relations with Israel, called on both sides to exercise restraint. The kingdom said it had repeatedly warned about the danger of “the situation exploding as a result of the continued occupation (and) the Palestinian people being deprived of their legitimate rights.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group congratulated Hamas, praising the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes.” The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas about the operation.
The attack comes at a time of historic division within Israel over Netanyahu’s proposal to overhaul the judiciary. Mass protests over the plan have sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli demonstrators into the streets and prompted hundreds of military reservists to avoid volunteer duty — turmoil that has raised fears over the military’s battlefield readiness and raised concerns about its deterrence over its enemies.
It also comes at a time of mounting tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, with the peace process effectively dead for years. Over the past year Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.
Israel has maintained a blockade over Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. The bitter enemies have fought four wars since then.
___
Adwan reported from Rafah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
JOSEF FEDERMAN and ISSAM ADWAN
Updated Sat, October 7, 2023
JERUSALEM (AP) — Backed by a barrage of rockets, dozens of Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and into nearby Israeli towns, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday. A stunned Israel said it is now at war with Hamas and launched airstrikes in Gaza, vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price.”
In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gaza border. In some places, they roamed for hours, gunning down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response. Gunbattles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns.
Israel’s national rescue service said at least 200 people were killed and 1,100 wounded, making it the deadliest attack in Israel in decades. At least 198 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and at least 1,610 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Hamas fighters took an unknown number of civilians and soldiers captive into Gaza, a deeply sensitive issue for Israel.
The conflict threatened to escalate to an even deadlier stage with Israel’s vows of greater retaliation. Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers brought widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns. The situation is potentially more volatile now, with Israel’s far-right government stung by the security breach and with Palestinians in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza.
After nightfall, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza intensified, flattening several residential buildings in giant explosions, including a 14-story tower that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israeli forces fired a warning just before, and there were no reports of casualties.
Soon after, a Hamas rocket barrage into central Israel hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb, where two people were seriously injured. Throughout the day, Hamas fired more than 3,500 rockets, the Israeli military said.
The strength, sophistication and timing of the Saturday morning attack shocked Israelis. Hamas fighters used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing the Mediterranean territory, then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speed boats on the coast.
In some towns, a trail of civilians’ bodies lay where they had encountered the advancing gunmen. On the road outside the town of Sderot, a bloodied woman slumped dead in the seat of her car. At least nine people gunned down at a bus shelter in the town were laid out on stretchers on the street, their bags still on the curb nearby. One woman, screaming, embraced the body of a family member sprawled under a sheet next to a toppled motorcycle; as she was led away, she picked up the dead person’s helmet from the ground nearby.
Associated Press photos showed an abducted elderly Israeli woman being brought back into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle. Images also showed fighters parading captured Israeli military vehicles through Gaza streets.
“We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass army mobilization. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.”
“The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” he added, promising that Israel would “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.”
The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, violence at Al Aqsa — the disputed Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount — increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians and growth of settlements.
“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message. He said the attack was only the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight. “Today the people are regaining their revolution.”
The Hamas incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, aiming to take back Israeli-occupied territories.
Comparisons to one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history sharpened criticism of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who had campaigned on more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. Political commentators lambasted the government over its failure to anticipate what appeared to be a Hamas attack unseen in its level of planning and coordination.
Asked by reporters how Hamas had managed to catch the army off guard, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, replied, “That’s a good question.”
The abduction of Israeli civilians and soldiers also raised a particularly thorny issue for Israel, which has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges to bring captive Israelis home.
Hamas’ military wing claimed it was holding dozens of Israeli soldiers captive in “safe places” and tunnels in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military confirmed that a number of Israelis were abducted but would not give a figure. If true, the claim could set the stage for complicated negotiations on a swap with Israel, which is holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons.
An unknown number of civilians were also taken. AP journalists saw four taken from the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, including two women. In Gaza, a black jeep pulled to a stop and, when the rear door opened, a young Israeli woman stumbled out, bleeding from the head and with her hands tied behind her back. A man waving a gun in the air grabbed her by the hair and pushed her into the vehicle’s back seat. Israeli TV reported that workers from Thailand and the Philippines were also among the captives.
In the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, just 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Gaza Strip, terrified residents who were huddled indoors said they could hear constant gunfire echoing off the buildings as firefights continued.
“With rockets we somehow feel safer, knowing that we have the Iron Dome (missile defense system) and our safe rooms. But knowing that terrorists are walking around communities is a different kind of fear,” said Mirjam Reijnen, a 42-year-old volunteer firefighter and mother of three in Nahal Oz.
A major question now was whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a densely populated enclave of more than 2 million people, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties.
Israel’s military was bringing four divisions of troops as well as tanks to the Gaza border, joining 31 battalions already in the area, the spokesman Hagari said.
In Gaza, much of the population was thrown into darkness after nightfall, as electrical supplies from Israel – which supplies almost all the territories’ power – was cut off.
Hamas said it had planned for a potentially long fight. “We are prepared for all options, including all-out war,” the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, told Al-Jazeera TV. “We are ready to do whatever is necessary for the dignity and freedom of our people.”
U.S. President Joe Biden condemned “this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza.” He spoke with Netanyahu and said Israel “has a right to defend itself and its people.” according to a White House statement.
Saudi Arabia, which has been in talks with the U.S. about normalizing relations with Israel, called on both sides to exercise restraint. The kingdom said it had repeatedly warned about the danger of “the situation exploding as a result of the continued occupation (and) the Palestinian people being deprived of their legitimate rights.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group congratulated Hamas, praising the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes.” The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas about the operation.
The attack comes at a time of historic division within Israel over Netanyahu’s proposal to overhaul the judiciary. Mass protests over the plan have sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli demonstrators into the streets and prompted hundreds of military reservists to avoid volunteer duty — turmoil that has raised fears over the military’s battlefield readiness and raised concerns about its deterrence over its enemies.
It also comes at a time of mounting tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, with the peace process effectively dead for years. Over the past year Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.
Israel has maintained a blockade over Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. The bitter enemies have fought four wars since then.
___
Adwan reported from Rafah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
PHOTOS
11 powerful images of the wave of surprise attacks on Israel by Palestinian militants including burning tanks and rocket barrages
Sawdah Bhaimiya
Sat, October 7, 2023
A man runs on a road as fire burns after rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel.Amir Cohen/REUTERS
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a state of war after Hamas launched a surprise attack.
Hamas has fired thousands of rockets at Israel in "Operation Al-Aqsa Storm."
Insider compiled 11 dramatic images showing the consequences of the surprise attack on Israel.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a state of war after Palestinian militant organization Hamas launched thousands of rockets in a surprise attack on Saturday.
"The Israel Defense Forces will defend Israeli civilians and the Hamas terrorist organization will pay heavy price for its actions," Israel Defense Forces said in a statement, per Insider.
Hamas' military commander Mohammad Deif called on Palestinians in Israel and those in neighboring Arab countries to join the attack, which he called "Operation Al-Aqsa Storm," in a rare statement, per the Washington Post.
Palestinian militants infiltrated Israeli territory by land, sea, and some even used motorized paragliders as the attacks continued.
Images show the scale of the attacks, including captured Israeli military vehicles, buildings aflame, and Israelis fleeing areas targeted by Hamas.
Latest reports from Israeli media say 40 Israelis have been killed so far, with a further 740 people wounded by the Hamas bombings and raids.
Israel's foreign ministry claimed that Hamas fighters were wantonly murdering civilians, per Sky News.
Here are 11 dramatic images as the conflict unfolds.
Rockets are fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza into Israel.Mohammed Salem/REUTERS
Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from Ashkelon in southern Israel.Ammar Awad/REUTERS
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes in Gaza, October 7, 2023.Mohammed Salem/REUTERS
A man runs on a road as fire burns after rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel.
Sawdah Bhaimiya
Sat, October 7, 2023
A man runs on a road as fire burns after rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel.Amir Cohen/REUTERS
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a state of war after Hamas launched a surprise attack.
Hamas has fired thousands of rockets at Israel in "Operation Al-Aqsa Storm."
Insider compiled 11 dramatic images showing the consequences of the surprise attack on Israel.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a state of war after Palestinian militant organization Hamas launched thousands of rockets in a surprise attack on Saturday.
"The Israel Defense Forces will defend Israeli civilians and the Hamas terrorist organization will pay heavy price for its actions," Israel Defense Forces said in a statement, per Insider.
Hamas' military commander Mohammad Deif called on Palestinians in Israel and those in neighboring Arab countries to join the attack, which he called "Operation Al-Aqsa Storm," in a rare statement, per the Washington Post.
Palestinian militants infiltrated Israeli territory by land, sea, and some even used motorized paragliders as the attacks continued.
Images show the scale of the attacks, including captured Israeli military vehicles, buildings aflame, and Israelis fleeing areas targeted by Hamas.
Latest reports from Israeli media say 40 Israelis have been killed so far, with a further 740 people wounded by the Hamas bombings and raids.
Israel's foreign ministry claimed that Hamas fighters were wantonly murdering civilians, per Sky News.
Here are 11 dramatic images as the conflict unfolds.
Rockets are fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza into Israel.Mohammed Salem/REUTERS
Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from Ashkelon in southern Israel.Ammar Awad/REUTERS
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes in Gaza, October 7, 2023.Mohammed Salem/REUTERS
A man runs on a road as fire burns after rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel.
Amir Cohen/REUTERS
Israeli police officers evacuate a family from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli police officers evacuate a family from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.
Tsafrir Abayov/Associated Press
A house is on fire in the kibbutz of Kfar Azza that Palestinians stormed from the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
A house is on fire in the kibbutz of Kfar Azza that Palestinians stormed from the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
Hassan Eslaiah/Associated Press
Palestinians break into the Israeli side of Israel-Gaza border fence after gunmen infiltrated areas of southern Israel.Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa/REUTERS
Palestinians react as an Israeli military vehicle burns after it was hit by Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, at the Israeli side of Israel-Gaza border.
Palestinians break into the Israeli side of Israel-Gaza border fence after gunmen infiltrated areas of southern Israel.Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa/REUTERS
Palestinians react as an Israeli military vehicle burns after it was hit by Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, at the Israeli side of Israel-Gaza border.
Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa/REUTERS
A Palestinian man takes a selfie in front of a burning Israeli military vehicle after it was hit by Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, at the Israeli side of Israel-Gaza border.
A Palestinian man takes a selfie in front of a burning Israeli military vehicle after it was hit by Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, at the Israeli side of Israel-Gaza border.
Yasser Qudih/REUTERS
Hamas published video footage of their fighters training with paragliders, that were later sued in the attacks on Israel, on October 7.Hamas
.
Palestinian militants ride an Israeli military vehicle that was seized by gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, in the northern Gaza Strip.
Hamas published video footage of their fighters training with paragliders, that were later sued in the attacks on Israel, on October 7.Hamas
.
Palestinian militants ride an Israeli military vehicle that was seized by gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, in the northern Gaza Strip.
Ahmed Zakot/REUTERS
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