(Jerusalem) Israeli forces on Sunday tracked down hundreds of Palestinian fighters infiltrated into Israel and bombed the Gaza Strip, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “long” war against Hamas, at the origin of an unprecedented offensive launched the day before.
WHAT THERE IS TO KNOW
- Hamas launched a surprise military offensive on Saturday, firing thousands of rockets towards Israel;
- The Israeli army responded with airstrikes on the Gaza Strip;
- Israeli forces hunt down hundreds of Palestinian fighters infiltrated into Israel;
- “We are at war and we will win it,” declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu;
- “We are on the verge of a great victory,” declared Ismaïl Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas;
- The death toll stands at more than 200 deaths on the Israeli side and more than 300 on the Palestinian side.
More than 200 dead on the Israeli side, more than 300 dead on the Palestinian side, hundreds of Palestinian fighters infiltrated into Israeli communities bordering Gaza, numerous Israelis kidnapped. For Israel, this escalation is the deadliest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades.
The Israeli army announced that it would evacuate in the next 24 hours all residents residing in localities near Gaza, territory under the control of Hamas, Israel’s sworn enemy.
Seeking to regain control after the surprise offensive launched Saturday at dawn in the middle of Shabbat, the Jewish weekly rest, Israeli forces on Sunday tracked down fighters infiltrated in southern Israel and continued their airstrikes against targets in Gaza where buildings were flattened.
“Tens of thousands of soldiers” are deployed in the southern sector where “heroic battles are underway to free hostages” and “we will […] kill every terrorist in Israel,” said army spokesman General Daniel Hagari.
PHOTO RONEN ZVULUN, REUTERS
A member of the Israeli security forces in Sderot
Israeli forces said they had retaken the police station in Sderot, after having “neutralized 10 terrorists who were there.”
“The first phase is coming to an end […] by eliminating the vast majority of enemy forces that have infiltrated our territory,” Mr. Netanyahu said, warning that “the war will be long and difficult.”
Under the cover of a barrage of rockets fired at Israel, Hamas fighters, aboard vehicles, boats and even motorized paragliders, made use of the imposing barrier around Gaza on Saturday, attacking military positions and civilians in the street.
Again on Sunday, Palestinian fighters fired rockets into Israel.
PHOTO RONEN ZVULUN, REUTERS
Trails of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel are visible in the sky from Sderot on October 8.
“A lot of bodies”
Israel was further attacked on its northern border with Lebanon. Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and Iran, fired shells into a contested area of the border, prompting an Israeli drone strike on a Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon.
In Egypt, two Israeli tourists were killed by a police officer who shot at them in Alexandria, according to a media report.
In Israel, the authorities have not specified the number of Israeli civilians and soldiers kidnapped by Palestinian fighters, but the Israeli online news site Ynet puts forward “an estimate of around a hundred people”.
Some of the Israelis searching for their loved ones, interviewed on radio and television, said they had seen them on videos of Hamas hostages in Gaza circulating on social media.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another armed Palestinian group, claimed to have captured “numerous soldiers”.
“What happened is unprecedented in Israel,” admitted Benjamin Netanyahu, commenting on the Hamas offensive.
The fighting left “more than 200 dead” and “more than 1,000 injured” on the Israeli side, according to the army, which accused Hamas of having “massacred civilians” even in their homes.
PHOTO FATIMA SHBAIR, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestinians clear debris from the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 8.
“I saw a lot of bodies,” Shlomi, an Israeli, told AFP, next to corpses near Kibbutz Gevim (South).
In the Gaza Strip, 313 Palestinians were killed and nearly 2,000 injured according to Hamas.
Security Council meeting
The Hamas offensive was launched 50 years and one day after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war which took Israel completely by surprise, leading to the deaths of 2,600 Israelis in three weeks of fighting.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military branch of Hamas, announced that they had launched the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation against Israel on Saturday and had fired more than “5,000 rockets” to “put an end to the crimes of the occupation”. Israel has occupied the West Bank, a Palestinian territory, and the eastern part of Jerusalem since 1967, and has imposed a blockade on Gaza for more than 15 years.
The Israeli army, which counted more than 3,000 Palestinian shots, launched Operation “Iron Sabres”, destroying buildings presented as Hamas “command centers” in Gaza.
According to Doctors Without Borders, a strike hit a hospital, causing deaths.
Israel has suspended deliveries of electricity, food and goods from Israel to the Palestinian territory.
Schools remained closed on Sunday, the start of the week in Israel.