Update
Media: at least 100 dead
Deadly mass attack by Hamas hits Israel hard
October 7, 2023, 4:25 p.m
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Hamas surprises Israel’s defenses with a massive attack from the Gaza Strip. According to media reports, there are at least 100 deaths on the Israeli side and around 900 are injured. Israel’s army launches counterattacks on Gaza, where authorities there say nearly 200 people are dead.
The militant Palestinian organization Hamas has launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, declaring war on the country, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Thousands of rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, and according to the army, fighters also infiltrated Israel by sea and land using paragliders.
According to Israeli police, 200 to 300 Hamas terrorists entered Israeli territory this morning. This is reported by the newspaper “Haaretz” and cites authorities. Dozens of them are still in the country.
In Israel, at least 100 people were killed in the attacks and around 900 others were injured, Israeli media reported, citing medical sources. According to the Magen David Adom rescue service, at least 70 people have been killed on the Israeli side so far. According to the Ministry of Health there, almost 200 people are said to have died in the subsequent air strikes by the Israeli army on the Gaza Strip – more than 1,600 were injured.
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“We are at war, not in an operation or in battles, but at war,” Netanyahu said in a speech. He ordered the “comprehensive mobilization of reservists”: “The enemy will pay an unprecedented price.” An Israeli military spokesman reported fighting in several locations near the border with the Gaza Strip. Hamas has decided to put an end to Israel’s “crimes” and fired more than 5,000 rockets at Israel in a first wave of attacks in “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” said the head of Hamas’ militant wing Essedin al-Qassam Brigades , Mohammed Deif. According to the Israeli army, at least 2,200 rockets were fired at Israel by midmorning.
Report: Around 50 hostages in the kibbutz
Hamas released a video purporting to show three prisoners in civilian clothes. Apparently they were “enemy soldiers,” said one comment. According to a report by the Israeli TV channel N12, Hamas militants are holding around 50 hostages in the Israeli Kibbutz Beeri near the border with the Gaza Strip. Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri told the TV channel Al-Jazeera that “a large number” of Israeli hostages were in the hands of Hamas. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the capture as a violation of international law. The “hostages” must be released immediately, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Other videos shared on online networks showed bodies of people in military uniforms and dead occupants of cars on a highway. The videos have not yet been independently verified. A reporter from the AFP news agency reported that armed Palestinians gathered around a burning Israeli tank after crossing the border fence in Khan Yunis. Another reporter saw Palestinians returning to Gaza City in a hijacked Israeli military SUV.
Israel’s army hits back hard
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting of the so-called security cabinet: “As of this morning, the State of Israel is at war.” According to the military, the country was officially put on war alert and thousands of reservists were called up. The Israeli army called its defensive action “Iron Swords.” An Israeli representative warned that the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, had opened “the gates to hell” with its major attack on Israel.
The first goal now is to “clear the area of the enemy troops that have invaded,” said Netanyahu. He announced that Hamas would pay an “immense price” for the attack. It is also important to secure other fronts “so that no one makes the mistake of entering this war.” Israel’s army primarily secured the northern border out of fear of a possible attack by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.
The Israeli army said 17 military installations and four Hamas command centers were attacked. According to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, at least 198 people were killed and more than 1,600 injured in the airstrikes.
Hamas: All Palestinians should fight
On Telegram, Hamas called on “resistance fighters in the West Bank” and “our Arab and Islamic nations” to join the fight. An adviser to Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, spoke of a “proud” effort. Lebanon’s Hezbollah hailed the Hamas attack on Israel as a “heroic action.”
Russia, meanwhile, called on the Palestinian and Israeli sides for an “immediate ceasefire.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also called on “all parties to act sensibly and not to take impulsive steps that increase tensions.” The Islamic conservative President Erdogan is an advocate for the Palestinians in the Middle East conflict.
Baerbock: Major attack by “terrorists”
Meanwhile, strong criticism of the attacks on Israel came from Western capitals. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Hamas’ attack on Israel was “terrorism in its most despicable form.” Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on X that violence and rockets against innocent people must stop immediately. The US government condemned the major attack as an act by “terrorists”.
After Hamas came to power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel imposed a blockade on the narrow coastal strip. Tensions rose in September when Israel closed a key border crossing for Palestinian workers for two weeks. Thousands of Palestinians were prevented from entering Israel despite their work permits. There were demonstrations with violent riots and deaths. Violence has also increased sharply in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the beginning of the year.