2023-10-08 05:38:02
JERUSALEM (AP) — Hamas fighters forced their way out of the besieged Gaza Strip and raided nearby Israeli towns, killing at least 250 people and kidnapping others in an unprecedented surprise attack during a major Jewish holiday on Saturday. Israel responded with strikes in Gaza that killed 232 people and announced more. The president said Israel was at war and promised to exact an “unprecedented toll.”
In an assault of staggering breadth, Hamas gunmen stormed 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities up to 24 kilometers (15 miles) from the Gaza border. In some places they prowled for hours, mowing down civilians and soldiers as the Israeli army tried to react.
Shooting continued well into the night, with attackers holding hostages in two towns and occupying a police station in a third town, where Israeli forces fought into Sunday morning to finally recapture the building.
The Israeli military said Sunday that its forces were fighting Hamas incursions in eight locations. An army spokesman said two hostage situations had been “resolved,” without clarifying whether all of the captured people had been rescued alive. At least 26 soldiers had been killed in the attacks, he said.
In some towns, the bodies of civilians were still lying where the assailants were found. At least nine people shot at a bus stop in the town of Sderot were on stretchers in the street, with their bags next to them on the sidewalk. A woman was screaming, hugging the body of a relative covered by a sheet, next to a discarded motorcycle.
Israeli airstrikes intensified following dark in Gaza, leveling several residential buildings with massive explosions, including a 14-story tower housing dozens of apartments, as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israel issued a warning moments before.
At least 232 people were killed in the Gaza Strip and 1,700 were injured in Israeli attacks, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israeli media citing rescue services said at least 250 people had been killed and 1,500 wounded in Saturday’s attack, making it the bloodiest in Israel in decades. Hamas fighters took an unknown number of captured soldiers and civilians to Gaza.
The conflict threatened to escalate following Israeli promises of retaliation.
In a televised speech Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli military will use all its strength to destroy Hamas’ capabilities. “We will turn into ruins all the places where Hamas hides, where it operates,” he said.
“Get out of there now,” Netanyahu told Gaza residents, who have no way to leave the tiny, overcrowded Mediterranean territory.
Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have suffered a border blockade, maintained with varying intensity by Israel and Egypt since Hamas militants took control of the territory in 2007.
Previous conflicts between Israel and Hamas rulers in Gaza have led to widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli populations. The situation might be more volatile this time given that the far-right Israeli government has been hit by the security breach and the desperation of the Palestinians due to an occupation with no end in sight in the West Bank and the suffocating blockade of Gaza.
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Shurafa reported from Gaza City. Associated Press journalists Isabel DeBre, Julia Frankel and Josef Federman in Jerusalem; and Issam Adwan in Rafah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.
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