Israel warns of ‘long, difficult war’ after Hamas attacks as death toll climbs

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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was embarking on a “long and difficult war” after Hamas militants launched a coordinated land, sea and air attack, with the violence leaving more than 1,100 people dead in both Gaza and Israel.

In the deadliest day of violence in Israel for 50 years, Hamas fighters began their attack at dawn on Saturday, the Jewish high holy day of Simchat Torah, with a huge barrage of rockets into southern Israel.

Israel Palestinians

Israel has responded with one of its most devastating days of retaliatory strikes. Source: AAP / Hatem Moussa/AP

The barrage gave cover to an unprecedented, multi-pronged infiltration of fighters into Israel from Gaza, a narrow strip of land that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians.

On Sunday, the conflict spread, with the Israeli military reporting that mortar bombs were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel. Israeli forces responded with artillery strikes into Lebanon.

Two Israeli tourists and their Egyptian guide were also shot dead in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on Sunday, the Israeli foreign ministry says.

Hamas fighters killed at least 700 Israelis in the raid, according to Israeli TV reports, including senior military officers. Fighters escaped back into Gaza with dozens of hostages, including both soldiers and civilians.
In southern Israel, Hamas gunmen were still fighting Israeli security forces on Sunday night, AEDT.
Israel responded with one of its most devastating days of retaliatory strikes, continuing overnight and into Sunday, killing more than 413 and wounding almost 2,000 Gazans, the health ministry of the Palestinian Authority reported on Sunday.

Netanyahu said Israel would take “mighty vengeance for this wicked day”.

His office said his security cabinet had approved steps to destroy the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant group “for many years”, including cutting electricity, fuel supplies and the entry of goods into Gaza.

“We are embarking on a long and difficult war that was forced on us by a murderous Hamas attack.”

A ‘sea of bodies’ in the streets

Bodies of Israeli civilians were strewn across the streets of Sderot in southern Israel, near Gaza, surrounded by broken glass. The bodies of a woman and a man were sprawled across the front seats of a car.

“I went out, I saw loads of bodies of terrorists, civilians, cars shot up. A sea of bodies, inside Sderot along the road, other places, loads of bodies,” said Shlomi from Sderot.

A body covered in a white sheet lies beside a motorbike on its side.

An Israeli civilian killed by Palestinian militants lies covered in Sderot, Israel, on 7 October 2023. Source: AP / AP

Terrified Israelis, barricaded into safe rooms, recounted their plight by phone on live TV.

Rave party attacked by gunmen

Esther Borochov, who fled a dance rave party attacked by the gunmen, told Reuters she survived by playing dead in a car after the driver trying to help her escape was shot point blank.
“I couldn’t move my legs,” she told Reuters at the hospital. “Soldiers came and took us away to the bushes.”
Senior military officers were among those killed in fighting near Gaza on Saturday, the Israeli military said.

Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri told Al Jazeera the group was holding a large number of Israeli captives, including senior officials. He said Hamas had enough captives to make Israel free all Palestinians in its jails.

Smoke rising from a building

Smoke rises after Israeli warplanes targeted the Palestine tower in Gaza City on 7 October 2023. Source: EPA / Mohammed Saber

Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman Jonathan Conricus said the number of Israelis in the hands of Hamas was unprecedented.

“I can assure you that the IDF will be focused on getting each and every Israeli back,” he told CNN.

An Israeli military spokesman said Israel could mobilise up to hundreds of thousands of reservists and was also prepared for war on its northern front against Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.

Hamas: ‘Palestinians living in refugee camps’

Hamas, which advocates Israel’s destruction, said the attack was driven by what it said were Israel’s escalated attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem and against Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the assault that began in Gaza would spread to the West Bank and Jerusalem. Gazans have lived under an Israeli blockade for 16 years.

In a speech, Haniyeh highlighted threats to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the continuation of an Israeli blockade on Gaza and Israeli diplomatic normalisation with countries in the region.

“How many times have we warned you that the Palestinian people have been living in refugee camps for 75 years, and you refuse to recognise the rights of our people?”

Retaliatory strikes from Israel into Gaza

In Gaza, black smoke, orange flashes and sparks lit the sky from explosions. Israeli drones could be heard overhead.

Gaza’s dead and wounded were carried into crumbling and overcrowded hospitals with severe shortages of medical supplies and equipment. Palestinian health officials said 313 people had been killed in Gaza and almost 2,000 wounded in the retaliatory strikes.

Palestinian medics inspect a damaged ambulance. The ambulance is crushed and there are bloodstains on the door.

Palestinian medics inspect a damaged ambulance hit by an Israeli air strike inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 7 October 2023. Source: AP / AP

Streets were deserted apart from ambulances racing to the scenes of air strikes. Israel cut the power, plunging the city into darkness.

The Israeli military said on Sunday it fired artillery into an area of Lebanon where cross-border mortar fire took place.
“IDF artillery is currently striking the area in Lebanon from where a shooting was carried out,” it said.

“The IDF has been taking preparational measures for this type of possibility and will continue to operate in all regions and at any time necessary to ensure the safety of the Israeli civilians.”

Firefighters spray water on burned-out cars.

Israeli firefighters extinguish fire after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a parking lot in Ashkelon, southern Israel, 7 October, 2023. Source: AP / AP

World leaders condemn attacks

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the attacks as “abhorrent”, describing the conflict as a “very dark 24 hours”.
At the White House, US President Joe Biden went on national television to say Israel had the right to defend itself and issued a blunt warning.

“This is not a moment for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage. The world is watching,” he said.

“In this moment of tragedy, I want to say to them (the people of Israel) and to the world and to terrorists everywhere, that the United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back. We’ll make sure that they have the help that their citizens need and they can continue to defend themselves,” Biden said.
United Nations Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland condemned the attacks on Israel, warning in a statement: “This is a dangerous precipice, and I appeal to all to pull back from the brink.”
Across the Middle East, there were demonstrations in support of Hamas, with Israeli and US flags set on fire and marchers waving Palestinian flags in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

The Hamas attack was openly praised by Iran and by Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese allies.

Long after nightfall, residents had yet to be given the all-clear to go home.

“It’s not over because the (army) hasn’t said the kibbutz is clear of terrorists,” Dani Rahamim told Reuters by telephone from the shelter where he was still hiding in Nahal Oz, close to the Gaza fence. Gunfire had subsided but regular explosions could still be heard.

Journalists taking cover from gunfire

Journalists take cover behind cars as Israeli soldiers take position during clashes with Palestinian fighters near the Gevim Kibbutz, close to the border with Gaza. Source: Getty / Oren Ziv

That Israel was caught completely off guard was lamented as one of the worst intelligence failures in its history, a shock to a nation that boasts of its intensive infiltration and monitoring of militants.

In Gaza, a narrow strip home to 2.3 million Palestinians, residents rushed to buy supplies in anticipation of war. Some evacuated their homes and headed for shelters.
Scores of Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded in clashes at the border into Israel, where fighters captured the crossing point and tore down fences. Some of the dead were civilians, among crowds that attempted to cross into Israel through the damaged gates.

“We are afraid,” a Palestinian woman, Amal Abu Daqqa, told Reuters as she left her house in Khan Younis.

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