Supported by a barrage of rockets, Hamas militants launched a brazen attack from the blockaded Gaza Strip into neighboring Israeli towns, resulting in the deaths of dozens and the abduction of others in a shocking and unprecedented assault during a major Jewish holiday on Saturday. Israel, in response to the attack, launched airstrikes in Gaza, with its head of state declaring that the country is now at war with Hamas and vowing to exact an “unprecedented cost.”
In a sweeping and terrifying offensive, Hamas fighters infiltrated more than 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and communities situated up to 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gaza border. In some areas, they targeted civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to formulate a response.
Gunfights continued well into the night, with assailants holding hostages in standoffs in two towns. In a third town, attackers occupied a police station, and Israeli forces struggled until Sunday morning to retake the building.
Early Sunday, before dawn, assailants fired additional rockets from Gaza, hitting a hospital in the Israeli coastal town of Ashkelon, causing damage. According to senior hospital official Tal Bergman, there were no reported casualties.
According to Israeli media, citing rescue service officials, at least 250 people were killed and 1,500 were injured in Saturday’s attack, making it the deadliest in Israel in decades. The Palestinian Health Ministry stated that at least 232 people were killed and 1,700 were injured in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. Hamas fighters also took an unknown number of civilians and soldiers hostage into Gaza.
The conflict has escalated with Israel’s vows of retaliation. Past conflicts between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers have resulted in widespread death and destruction in Gaza and months of rocket fire on Israeli communities. The situation is potentially even more volatile now, with Israel’s far-right government stung by the security breach and with Palestinians frustrated over a longstanding occupation in the West Bank and the suffocating blockade of Gaza.
In a televised address on Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier declared Israel to be at war, asserted that the military would use all its might to destroy Hamas’ capabilities. However, he cautioned, “This war will take time. It will be difficult.”
“We will turn all the places that Hamas hides in, operates from, into rubble,” he added. “Leave now,” he told Gaza residents, who have no means of leaving the densely populated Mediterranean territory of 2.3 million people.
Early Sunday, the Israeli military issued warnings in Arabic to residents of communities near the Israel-Gaza border to leave their homes and move to areas further inside the small territory. In previous Israel-Hamas fighting on Gaza soil, communities near the border were particularly hard-hit, both by artillery fire and at times by ground incursions.
Gaza’s residents have been under a blockade, variously enforced by Israel and Egypt, since Hamas militants seized control in 2007. Civilians are trapped and particularly vulnerable during wars and outbreaks of fighting.
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza escalated after sundown, with private residences flattened in massive explosions, including a 14-story tower in central Gaza City that housed numerous apartments as well as Hamas offices. Israeli forces issued a warning just before.
Around 3 a.m., a loudspeaker on a mosque in Gaza City blared a clear warning to residents of nearby high-rises: Evacuate immediately. Just minutes later, an Israeli airstrike leveled an adjacent five-story building.
Following an Israeli strike, a Hamas rocket barrage hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb. Throughout the day, Hamas fired more than 3,500 rockets, according to the Israeli military.
The scale, sophistication, and timing of the Saturday morning attack caught Israelis off guard. Hamas fighters used explosives to breach the border wall surrounding Gaza, then crossed using motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders, and speedboats along the coast.
In some towns, the bodies of civilians lay where they had encountered advancing gunmen. At least nine people were gunned down at a bus shelter in the town of Sderot, and their bodies were laid out on stretchers in the city, their bags still on the sidewalk nearby. A woman, wailing, hugged the body of a relative covered under a sheet next to an overturned motorcycle.
In amateur video, numerous terrified young people who had been dancing at a rave fled for their lives after Hamas attackers entered the area and began shooting at them. Israeli media reported that many people were killed.
Among the dead was Col. Jonathan Steinberg, a senior officer who commanded the Israeli military’s Nahal Brigade, a prominent infantry unit.
Hamas’ shadowy head of the military wing, Mohammed Deif, stated that the attack was a response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli strikes in West Bank cities over the past year, violence at Al Aqsa—the contested Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount—increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians, and the expansion of settlements.
“That’s it,” Deif, who does not appear in that condition, said in the recorded message. He stated that the attack was just the beginning of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians from East Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight.
The Hamas assault on Simchat Torah, a usually joyous day when Jews conclude the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, stirred painful memories of the 1973 Middle East war almost 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 reclaim Israeli-occupied territories.
Comparisons to one of the darkest moments in Israeli history prompted criticism of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who had campaigned for more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. Political opponents lambasted the government and military over its failure to anticipate what appeared to be a well-planned and coordinated Hamas attack.
When asked by reporters how Hamas had managed to take the military by surprise, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, replied, “That’s a good question.”
The abduction of Israeli civilians and soldiers also presented a particularly thorny issue for Israel, which has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges to bring captive Israelis home. Israel is currently holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons. Hecht confirmed that a “significant” number of Israelis were kidnapped on Saturday.
Associated Press photos showed an elderly Israeli woman being brought into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman sandwiched between two fighters on a motorcycle. AP journalists witnessed four people being taken from the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, including two women.
Netanyahu vowed that Hamas “will pay a very heavy price.” A major question now is whether Israel will launch a ground incursion into Gaza, a move that in the past has resulted in increased casualties.
Israel’s military was mobilizing four divisions of troops along with tanks to the Gaza border, joining the 31 regiments already on site, according to spokesman Hagari.
In Gaza, much of the population was plunged into darkness after nightfall as electricity supplies from Israel— which provides nearly all of the territory’s power— were cut off. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel would cease providing electricity, fuel, and goods to Gaza.
Hamas said it had made preparations for a potentially protracted conflict. “We are prepared for all options, including a full-scale war,” said the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, in an interview with Al-Jazeera television. “We are ready to do whatever is necessary for the dignity and freedom of our people.”
U.S. President Joe Biden, from the White House, stated that he had spoken with Netanyahu to convey that the U.S. “stands with the people of Israel against these terrorist attacks. Israel has the right to defend itself and its people, period.”
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 stated that it had repeatedly warned about “the situation exploding due to the continued occupation (and) the Palestinian people being deprived of their legitimate rights.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group praised Hamas, hailing the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes.” The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas regarding the operation.
The attack comes at a time of deep division within Israel over Netanyahu’s proposal to overhaul the judiciary. Mass protests over the plan have brought thousands of Israeli demonstrators into the streets and prompted many military reservists to refuse volunteer duty—a conflict that has raised concerns about the military’s frontline preparedness.
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 increased settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared over a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.
Palestinians demonstrated in towns and cities across the West Bank on Saturday night. Palestinian health officials said Israeli fire killed five there but provided few details.
