At least 70 people have been killed in Israel following the military offensive launched from Gaza. For its part, the Hamas Ministry of Health counts at least 232 dead in Gaza.
The sirens sounded early in the morning. Israel and the Gaza Strip are in conflict after the launch on Saturday October 7 of a surprise and spectacular military offensive by Palestinian Hamas. The Palestinian group has fired thousands of rockets, infiltrated fighters into Israeli territory and captured an unknown number of Israelis. The attack was widely condemned by the international community, including France and the European Union (EU).
>> “I have never been so scared”: in the early morning, Shabbat, a surprise Hamas attack sows terror in Israel
The offensive by the Palestinian Islamist movement comes on the last day of the Jewish holidays of Sukkot in Israel, when the country is living in slow motion and many pilgrims and tourists have flocked during this school vacation period. It also takes place fifty years and one day after the start of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war which took Israel completely by surprise in the middle of Yom Kippur. Franceinfo summarizes what you need to know about the deadliest escalation since the 11-day war in May 2021 between Hamas and the Israeli army.
Coordinated attacks from the Gaza Strip
The hostilities began before 6:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. Paris time) with a deluge of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, towards neighboring Israeli towns, but also deeper into Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Taking advantage of the element of surprise, Hamas fighters aboard vehicles, boats and even motorized paragliders made use of the imposing security barrier erected by Israel around the Gaza Strip, attacking military positions or civilians in the street.
In an audio message broadcast by Hamas television, the commander of the Al-Qassam brigades, Mohammad Deif, announced that he had launched the operation “Al-Aqsa flood” against Israel. “We have decided to put an end to all the crimes of the occupation”he added. In the evening, the Israeli army claimed that “hundreds” armed men were still present on the territory of the country.
Israel’s response, “at war”
In response, the Israeli army launched Operation Steel Sabers, and around 11 a.m. (9 a.m. French time), it announced it would carry out its first airstrikes on Gaza in retaliation. “We are at war, it is not a simple operation or a cycle of violence, but a war”declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At mid-morning, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, explained that troops are engaged in ground combat on Israeli territory in “several places around the Gaza Strip” against infiltrated fighters qualified as “terrorists”.
Numerous airstrikes have targeted Gaza. In the evening, they destroyed the three buildings of the “Palestine tour”, noted AFP journalists, who saw the three towers of more than ten floors collapse one after the other after explosions. At the same time, Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz announced that he had signed a decree ordering the public electricity company to “cease (its) supply of electricity to Gaza”.
An already heavy human toll
The outbreak of violence has already left 70 dead on the Israeli side, according to Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross. There have been at least 198 deaths on the Palestinian side, according to the Health Ministry of Hamas, the Islamist movement in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007. In the occupied West Bank, two Palestinians were killed, in Ramallah and Jericho, and one Fifty others injured during clashes with Israeli forces and settlers, announced the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the Red Crescent.
From the morning, hundreds of civilians fled their homes in the northeast of the Gaza Strip to move away from the border with Israel. Furthermore, the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed to have “captured several enemy soldiers” in a video. The al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also declared detentionr “many soldiers” Israelis. The spokesperson for the Israeli army confirmed in the evening that “Israeli soldiers and civilians” had been kidnapped during the infiltration of armed men.
Almost unanimous condemnations across the world
The UN announced that it had convened an emergency meeting of the Security Council on the Middle East on Sunday. UN chief Antonio Guterres has urged the international community to “diplomatic efforts to avoid a widening of the conflagration” between Israel and Hamas. US President Joe Biden, who spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu, “warns any actor hostile to Israel who seeks to take advantage of the situation”according to a White House press release.
The EU and several European capitals have also “firmly condemned” the attacks. “This horrific violence must stop immediately. Terrorism and violence solve nothing”, declared the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell. Emmanuel Macron, who also condemned the Hamas attacks, spoke with the Egyptian and Palestinian presidents and the Lebanese Prime Minister.
Ukraine, at war since February 2022 with Russia, for its part affirmed to support Israel in its ” right to defend oneself and one’s people.”. As for Russia, it called on the Israelis and Palestinians to “immediate ceasefire”expressing his “biggest concern”. In Iran, a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, welcomed the offensive, saying he supported “this proud operation”.