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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to defeat the Hamas militant group after its deadly incursion into southern Israel which has seen them snatch grandparents, children and women off the streets but says the war will ‘take time.’
Hamas gunmen have taken dozens of hostages off the streets of Israel as the war takes a darker turn and the death toll reached 450 after less than one day.
Horrifying footage showed women being marched into vehicles, bloodied and bruised, often with their hands bound behind their backs. Earlier pictures showed Israeli pensioners taken into the Gaza Strip on golf carts and families forced into trucks.
At least 250 people have died and 1,100 wounded in the conflict in Israel alone, and it’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced his country is ‘at war’ with the Palestinians militants and his country will ‘settle the score’ with anyone who harms captives.
Meanwhile Hamas has called for Arab and Islamic nations to join its attack, and has seen 198 people die in the Gaza Strip with another 1,610 wounded amid Israel’s retaliation.
The UN has announced an emergency Security Council meeting will be held tomorrow.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to defeat the Hamas militant group
Footage appeared to show hostages being taken by Hamas militants into Gaza earlier today
Israeli civilians were purportedly taken off the street and driven back into Gaza
People try to extinguish fire on cars following a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel
Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian, centre, from Kibbutz Kfar Azza into the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023
Shocking footage shared on social media appears to show Palestinian fighters parading the naked body of an Israeli woman on the back of a pick-up truck
Hamas claimed to have fired 5,000 rockets into Israel from the occupied Gaza Strip, setting off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem
Speaking on Saturday night, PM Netanyahu issued a dire warning to Hamas militants: ‘I tell Hamas, you are responsible for the wellbeing of captives, Israel will settle the score with anyone who harms them.’
He vowed to defeat the group, but said the war would ‘take time’, continuing: ‘What happened today has never been seen in Israel, we will take mighty vengeance for this black day.’
Promising ‘mighty vengeance’, he promised to reduce Gaza to ‘rubble’, telling innocent Palestinians to leave immediately.
Soon after, a convey of tanks were reported to be heading towards the border with Gaza.
Thomas Helm, Jerusalem Correspondent at The National spoke to MailOnline from Jerusalem today. He said the hostage situation set a dangerous tone for how the conflict – which was launched on a Jewish holiday – could develop.
‘There are reports that [the Palestinians] have taken an Israeli General hostage, entire families have been taken, point blank killings… wars have been started where one Israeli hostage was taken and now it seems like there could be about 60.
‘So it couldn’t be worse. Every Israeli I have spoken to, their voices have been quivering.’
The militants have claimed to have taken dozens of soldiers captive, but this does not include the number of civilians who have reportedly been detained.
An Israeli army spokesman says fighting is continuing in 22 locations in southern Israel some 12 hours after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack from the Gaza Strip.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari also said that Israel was striking targets in Gaza from the air and that ground operations were imminent.
Hagari confirmed ongoing hostage situations in the towns of Ofakim and Beeri. Earlier, both the Israeli military and Hamas confirmed that some Israelis had been captured and taken hostage.
For Israelis working and living within range of Gaza, the sight of Hamas militants roaming outside their homes marked a terrifying turn of events unlike anything residents had experienced before.
‘This was always the nightmare. We told ourselves that one day, the terrorists will come inside here,’ said Jehan Berman, a 42-year-old in the small community of Avshalom, just a few kilometers from Gaza.
He added that it took eight hours for the Israeli military to arrive to his kibbutz and start fending off the Hamas fighters. ‘We cannot live like this.’
Mr Berman – who suffers from multiple wounds and disabilities inflicted by the past four wars and countless other skirmishes between Israel and Hamas over the years – said that Israeli authorities had notified him that Hamas had kidnapped his 75-year-old mother-in-law, along with several friends in their 30s and their small children.
The last time he heard from his mother-in-law was at 10.30am, he said, when she called him, panicked and distraught, to say that Hamas militants had shot and killed her husband.
A ball of fire and smoke rise from an explosion on a Palestinian apartment tower following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City
A young girl looks at the wreckage caused by an Israeli airstrike on Saturday
Many Palestinians were left without electricity as they picked through rubble
People walk atop the rubble of a tower destroyed in an Israeli air stike in Gaza City on October 7
Rockets are fired from Gaza toward Israel on Saturday night, October 7
A woman sobs at the site of a rocket explosion in Tel Aviv, Israel
One captured woman was sat in the front seat of a golf cart accompanied with three male Hamas members as they made their way into the Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers are pictured after fighting between the IDF and Hamas
Firefighters work to put out a fire in an open field, following a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip
Another image showed a woman, who is being held hostage, holding a gun and putting her hands up in a peace sign alongside a member of Hamas in a balaclava
Areas of Tel Aviv in Israel have seen significant damage from the air strikes, which are overwhelming Israeli defences
Smoke and flames billow after Israeli forces struck a high-rise tower in Gaza City, October 7
Journalists take cover behind cars as Israeli soldiers take position during clashes with Palestinian fighters near the Gevim Kibbutz
Smoke and flames billow after Israeli forces struck a high-rise tower in Gaza City
Dozens of rockets are fired by Palestinians towards Israel on Saturday night
Germany’s Brandenburg Gate was lit up with the Israeli flag on Saturday night
Iran have been accused of encouraging the latest round of fighting by sources in government, the Times reports.
A Whitehall source told the paper: ‘The Revolutionary Guards have their fingerprints all over this multifaceted attack. Hamas is just another tool in Iran’s campaign against the West.’
Videos shared online appear to show Iranians celebrating news of the conflict, with state television airing a clip of Parliament members chanting: ‘Palestine will be victorious, Israel will be destroyed.’
Hamas, the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip, claims to have fired 5,000 rockets into Israel today, setting off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, before invading by ground and air, reportedly using paragliders.
The coordinated attack has seen border fences broken down, tanks immobilised, dozens of hostages reportedly taken and residential buildings targeted by airstrikes.
Emerging footage shows horrific scenes, including Palestinian groups celebrating as they paraded the naked body of a female IDF soldier on a truck through Gaza.
The Palestinians appear to have the upper hand, continuing to launch strikes across Israel. With little incentive to de-escalate, onlookers worry the clashes could go on.
But Israel has hit back, firing its own rockets into Gaza in retaliation, and both sides are continuing fighting late into the night.
Tel Aviv appears to have been struck by multiple missiles, with footage showing damaged buildings and large fires.
Meanwhile the Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure has ordered the immediate suspension of power to the Gaza Strip.
‘I have signed an order instructing Israel’s electric company to stop the electricity supply to Gaza,’ Katz said in a statement.
Gaza’s power authority says 80 percent of Gaza electricity supplies have been shut following Israel’s announcement.
The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated places in the world, with around two million people packed into 140 square miles. But it depends on Israel for water, electricity, telecommunications, and other utilities, and imports are carefully controlled by the occupying country.
On the outlook for the conflict, Thomas Helm told MailOnline today: ‘It really depends what Hamas wants out of this. I’ve heard comments from Hamas officials saying ‘we now have enough hostages to free every single Palestinian prisoner in prisoner exchanges.’
A rescue worker from the Magen David Adom disaster relief service looks on as cars burn at the site of a rocket attack in Ashkelon, southern Israel
An Israeli missile launched from the Iron Dome defence missile system attempts to intercept a rocket, fired from the Gaza Strip, over the city of Netivot in southern Israel
Palestinian militants brandish weapons as they pass through Israeli territory on trucks
Israeli forces have mounted strikes against targets in Gaza City following attacks today
Iranians attend a gathering in Tehran on October 7, 2023, to express their solidarity with Palestine
A source in Whitehall has pointed the finger at Iran for encouraging the recent outbreak of conflict
A tower block in Gaza City is hit by an Israeli airstrike after Palestinian militants struck Israel
A man runs in the road as fires burn in Ashkelon, Israel, following rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip initiated by Islamic militant group Hamas
‘The most safe way of getting hostages back is exchanging prisoners, but do you want to exchange mass prisoners at a time like this? Probably not.’
Israel’s army this afternoon acknowledged ‘soldiers, civilians kidnapped’ by Hamas.
From Israel’s perspective, the surprise attack has been ‘humiliating’, undermining intelligence efforts and overwhelming the Iron Dome defence system.
‘Israel has an amazing intelligence network but Gaza is sealed off. And no matter how good your intelligence is, if you don’t have people on the ground you don’t know the full picture.
‘This is a catastrophic intelligence failure, perhaps the worst intelligence in Israeli history. People have been describing it as their 9/11.’
‘There will be a huge response. We never want to say that for certain, but I think now we can because Israel is humiliated and they are obsessed with deterrence.’
Israel has vowed to exact revenge on Palestinian militants after they launched the surprise attack, warning Hamas that they had made a ‘grave mistake’.
A rocket is launched from the coastal Gaza strip towards Israel by militants of the Ezz Al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of Hamas movement, in Gaza City, 7 October 2023
Palestinians wave their national flag and celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis southern Saturday, October 7, 2023
Palestinians use an excavator to break through the border fence separating the occupied Gaza Strip from Israel
A Palestinian medic inspects the remains of an ambulance hit by an Israeli air strike in retaliation for a surprise incursion by Hamas on Saturday
Ambulances transport people to hospital in Tel Aviv after the incursion on Saturday
A woman holds the hand of a wounded soldier arriving at the emergency entrance to the Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv
Residents living close to Israel’s border with Gaza have been ordered to stay inside and others have been evacuated after Hamas militants infiltrated the country by land, sea and air and launched a fusillade of missile strikes.
A resident of Be’eri, Kibbutz, named Ella told Channel 12 that she is hearing ‘lots of gunfire’ nearby.
Another resident from the south is worried that his family have been snatched and taken into the Gaza Strip.
He said his wife and daughters have disappeared and that he has tried to ring them, but nobody is answering.
He then tracked his wife’s phone, which says that it is in the Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
This comes as there are unconfirmed reports that Hamas gunmen are holding hostages at the Kibbutz.
Around 50 Israelis of all ages are thought to have been taken hostage by Hamas gunmen in Beeri Kibbutz near the Gaza border, according to channel N12.
Pictures show senior Israeli women being transported on golf carts and motorcycles from Kibbutz into the Gaza Strip.
One grandmother was wedged in between two members of Hamas on a motorcycle. One of them was holding a sizable gun.
One captured woman was sat in the front seat of a golf cart, accompanied by three male Hamas members as they made their way into the Gaza Strip.
Another image showed a woman holding a gun and putting her hands up in a peace sign alongside a member of Hamas in a balaclava.
A senior leader of Hamas, Saleh al-Arouri, said that the group had enough hostages to make Israel free all its Palestinian prisoners.
The murder of civilians has drawn widespread condemnation from world leaders and prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say the country is at ‘war’.
Speaking in a televised address, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said that Hamas had made a ‘grave mistake…and launched a war against the State of Israel’ – vowing that ‘Israel will win’.
A man shelters by a wall as a siren sounds and rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip, in Mevaseret Zion, Israel
Palestinians celebrate after an Israeli tank was hit by Hamas gunmen who infiltrated the south of the country, on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border
A woman and child are evacuated from the site of a rocket attack in southern Israel on Saturday
People in Gaza assess damage after a barrage of Israeli airstrikes
Hamas fighters circumvented Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip by flying in via paraglider, according to the Israeli military (pictured: an alleged paraglider crossing into Israel)
Among those celebrating at the Beirut camp was a young boy wearing militia-style fatigues, carrying a handgun
Israeli medical teams evacuate an injured person from the southern city of Sderot, close to the border with the Gaza Strip
An injured Israeli soldier is brought into Tel Aviv’s Surasky Medical Centre following an attack by Palestinian militants on Saturday
Children are seen clambering among wreckage in Gaza after Israel launched rocket strikes
Hamas supporters burn the Israeli flag in southern Beirut, Lebanon
Israelis gather to donate blood at a hospital in Tel Aviv, following an appeal by the national ambulance service in the wake of the attack by Hamas on Saturday
An Israeli war jet is seen flying over the country after Hamas began its barrage on Saturday
Israel has rallied troops as the conflict deepens, despite calls from world leaders to de-escalate.
Thomas Helm told MailOnline: ‘This call up of reservists is natural at moments like this. But I haven’t seen anything to suggest that a coordinated response is happening… They keep very quiet about very sensitive things… but I mean, something big is coming.
‘It’s not going to be organised. It’s going to be messy and it’s going to last a long time. It’s just obviously unprecedented.’
‘It’s just impossible to comprehend,’ he said of the situation this afternoon. ‘If you had asked me to imagine a worse case scenario yesterday, I don’t think I could have come up with one short of a nuclear attack.’
Israel’s military claims that 2,500 rockets were fired by Palestinian militants, half the amount alleged by Hamas – and said troops had ‘infiltrated’ the country via sea and ground as well as by air, using paragliders.
They said in a statement: ‘The military declares a state of war alert. In the last hour, the Hamas terrorist organization had begun a massive shooting of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, and terrorists infiltrated into Israeli territory in a number of different locations.’
Mr Helm told MailOnline people on the ground had been expecting a rocket attack, but were shocked by the nature and extent of this morning’s assault.
‘What’s so shocking about this one is the creativity. People were planning for a large rocket barrage. That’s what we have been worrying about for a long time. But for people to be flying in on hang-gliders, it’s unreal,’ he said.
‘What it does more than anything else is shatters this sense that Israel… whenever you speak to an Israeli General they’re obsessed with deterrence. And they worry that their deterrence has been diminished in recent months. But this shatters it.’
Men believed to be Palestinian militants are seen riding an Israeli military vehicle after reportedly seizing it close to the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip
A member of Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades – its militant wing – holds a Palestinian flag atop a destroyed Israeli tank
Palestinians are greeted by crowds after returning from crossing the border into Israel
People flee as clashes flare between Palestinian groups and Israeli forces in Gaza City following the earlier air strikes
A man carries a crying child as they walk past a building destroyed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was ‘shocked’ by the attacks, writing on X, formerly Twitter: ‘Israel has an absolute right to defend itself. We’re in contact with Israeli authorities, and British nationals in Israel should follow travel advice.’
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also condemned the attack, as did Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer, who said there is ‘no justification for this act of terror’.
In Germany the famous Brandenburg Gate was lit up with the Israeli flag.
Videos on social media appeared to show armed troops from the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ militant arm, moving through built-up areas firing weapons as Israeli residents were evacuated from their homes following air strikes.
In a statement posted on Telegram, Hamas called on ‘the resistance fighters in the West Bank’ as well as ‘our Arab and Islamic nations’ to join the battle.
In remarks reported by CNN, militant commander Deif said: ‘If you have a gun, get it out. This is the time to use it – get out with trucks, cars, axes. Today the best and most honorable history starts.’
‘Today the people are regaining their revolution,’ he added, as he called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to ‘expel the occupiers and demolish the walls.’
In response, Israeli forces have vowed that Hamas will ‘face the consequences and responsibility for these events’.
It has started striking targets in Gaza in response, and deployed countermeasures to repel further air attacks – prompting further rocket launches from inside the blockaded territory.
In a filmed statement posted on X, following the attacks, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the incursion was a ‘murderous surprise attack’, adding: ‘We are at war, not an operation, not rounds, but at war.’
But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that ‘injustice’ towards Palestinians is driving the conflict with Israel to an ‘explosion’.
In a phone call, Abbas also said the ongoing escalation is down to the ‘practices of the colonialists and the Israeli occupation forces, and the aggression against Islamic and Christian sanctities,’ according to Palestinian agencies.
President Joe Biden described the assault as ‘horrific’ and said that he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to underline that the United States stood ‘ready to offer all appropriate means of support.’
UK politicians have roundly condemned Hamas’ actions. PM Rishi Sunak said he was ‘shocked’ by the attack, while foreign secretary James Cleverly and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer both said Israel had a right to defend itself
As the attacks threatened to trigger a wider conflict, Biden warned ‘against any other party hostile to Israel seeking advantage in this situation’ after the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas launched air, sea and land strikes on Israel.
Biden stressed that Israel – which the United States has supplied with billions of dollars of arms – has ‘a right to defend itself and its people.’
‘We will not ever fail to have her back,’ Biden added at the White House on Saturday evening, standing alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reaffirmed Washington’s ‘unwavering’ commitment, saying ‘over the coming days the Department of Defense will work to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians.’
Since its foundation, Israel has received lavish US military aid – more than $125 billion, according to a US State Department report from 2021.
This has helped it build ‘one of the world’s most capable, effective militaries,’ the report said.
The United Nations Security Council is due to meet tomorrow after Brazil announced it would convene an emergency session due to the conflict.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the attack and urged ‘all diplomatic efforts to avoid a wider conflagration, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
‘The secretary-general is deeply concerned for the civilian population and urges maximum restraint,’ he added.
‘Civilians must be respected and protected in accordance with international humanitarian law at all times.’
Hamas has controlled the Strip since winning the 2006 parliamentary elections and toppling rival party Fatah in a power struggle during the bloody Battle of Gaza in 2007.
At least 118 people were killed and more than 550 wounded during the fighting up to June 15, 2007, as Hamas militants ousted Fatah officials and took power.
In response, Israel imposed a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The conflict brought an end to the ‘unity government’ administering Gaza and the West Bank, with the Palestinian National Authority overseeing the eastern territory independently.
While the Palestinian National Authority still lays claim to Gaza, the city remains under the control of Hamas.
Today the UN peacekeeping force deployed along the Lebanon-Israel border says it is closely monitoring the situation in Israel.
In a statement, the force said that peacekeepers are present along the border line to maintain stability and help avoid escalation.
‘We have also adapted and enhanced our presence throughout our area of operations, including counter rocket-launching operations,’ said the force known as UNIFIL.
It has been months since rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel. The border area has been relatively calm since a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah ended in August 2006.
UNIFIL said its leader is in contact with all sides since the violence began in southern Israel ‘to ensure effective coordination and avoid misunderstandings.’
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