At least 198 Palestinians killed in Israeli air raids; Hamas attack kills 40 Israelis, βbig numberβ also captured.
Why the Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack on Israel? All to know
What happened and when?
- The Palestinian armed group Hamas has launched βOperation Al-Aqsa Floodβ against Israel in the most serious escalation since Israel and Hamas fought an 11-day war in 2021.
- Hamas said it had fired 5,000 rockets, while Israel confirmed that the groupβs fighters had entered its territory.
- Daniel Hagari, an Israeli army spokesman, said that the group attacked from land, sea and air.
- The first round of rockets was fired at 6:30am local time (03:30 GMT).
- The Israeli army also said it launched βOperation Iron Swordsβ against the Hamas group in the Gaza Strip.
- The early-morning attacks occurred on Simchat Torah, a holiday which falls towards the conclusion of the weeklong Jewish festival known as Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles.
Where did the attacks take place?
- The rockets were fired as far north as Tel Aviv. Hamas also sent fighters into southern Israel.
- Israeli media said that gunmen had opened fire on passers-by in the town of Sderot, and footage circulating on social media appeared to show clashes in city streets as well as gunmen in jeeps roaming the countryside. One report claimed Hamas fighters had taken control of multiple Israeli civilian population centres, where residents were begging for help from their government.
- The Israeli army says dozens of fighter jets were carrying out attacks on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
- Currently, the gun battles are taking place in and around the towns of Kfar Aza, Sderot, Sufa, Nahal Oz, Magen, Beβeri, and the Reβim military base, the Times of Israel reported.
How many casualties in Israel and Palestine?
- Medical sources in Gaza said at least 160 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,000 wounded.
- Israeli health officials said at least 40 Israelis have been killed and 750 wounded in Hamas attacks.
Why did Hamas attack Israel?
- Hamas spokesperson Khaled Qadomi has told Al Jazeera that the groupβs military operation is in response to all the atrocities the Palestinians have faced over the decades.
- βWe want the international community to stop atrocities in Gaza, against Palestinian people, our holy sites like Al-Aqsa. All these things are the reason behind starting this battle,β he said.
- βThis is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on Earth,β Mohammed Deif, the Hamas military commander said, adding that 5,000 rockets were launched.
- βEveryone who has a gun should take it out. The time has come,β Deif said, according to reports.
- Hamas called on βthe resistance fighters in the West Bankβ as well as βour Arab and Islamic nationsβ to join the battle, in a statement posted on Telegram.
What is the Israeli government saying?
- The Israeli army warned Israelis who live near Gaza to stay in their homes or head to shelters.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country is in a war it βwill winβ.
- Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel βwill win this war.β Hamas, he said, had made a βgrave mistake this morning and launched a war against the State of Israelβ.
What is the latest on the ground?
- Israeli media reported gunbattles between bands of Palestinian fighters and security forces in towns in southern Israel. Israelβs police chief said there were β21 active scenesβ in southern Israel
- Al Jazeeraβs Walid al-Omari, bureau chief in Ramallah, says Israeli forces surrounded a house in the Ofakim settlement and negotiations are under way with Palestinian fighters who are allegedly holding hostages.
- The Israeli Ministry of Education says all kindergartens and schools will remain closed across the country on Sunday, expanding a previously announced decision.
- The Ministry of Health in Gaza has issued a call for blood donations at hospitals in the besieged enclave.
- Follow all the latest updates in our page.
What are the international reactions so far?
- The Czech government has condemned Hamas for launching βterrorist attacksβ on Pragueβs traditional ally Israel.
- The European Unionβs foreign chief, Josep Borrell, expressed solidarity with Israel.
- The French foreign ministry said France condemned the βterrorist attacks under way against Israel and its populationβ and that France expressed its full solidarity with Israel.
- The UK βunequivocally condemnsβ a surprise attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Israel on Saturday, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said.
- Egypt warned of βgrave consequencesβ from an escalation in a statement from the foreign ministry carried by the state news agency on Saturday. It called for βexercising maximum restraint and avoiding exposing civilians to further dangerβ.
- Lebanese group Hezbollah issued a statement on Saturday saying it was closely following the situation in Gaza and was in βdirect contact with the leadership of the Palestinian resistanceβ.
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Comments
14 responses to “Israel pounds Gaza after Palestinian resistance seize Israelis in major attack”
Let’s all hope that the Palestinians can remove the white supremist cancer that occupies their country. Stop giving the apartheid white supremacists money. Tell your congressmen to stand against genocide and Ashkenazi.
As an Ashken’azi Jewish Bundist Anti-Zionist, the comment from Woopy is again pushing Antisemitism and not Anti-Zionism. BDS to Woopy, get it off this platform.
PhD you are apparently pushing the victomhood mantra again. The white supremists of Israel are not Semitic Jews, please do your research. The white supremists of Israel are known to be genocidal crazy people who have stolen land, murdered, tortured, and lie about it all the time. Even if they were “Semitic Jews” as you insist, we should all be against their land stealing, and murder of Palestinians. Many of them actually believe that they have the right to murder with impunity because they are “God’s chosen” and above all other humans. You really need to do some research.
Woopy does not understand the difference to opposing Zionst fanatics or Zionism with a blanket Antisemtic opposition to Ashken’azim, like me who is an Anti-Zionist Bundist. Do not avoid the question.
PhD, in your comment you said “do not avoid the question”. Please tell us what is your question.
The question is whether Woopy can tell the difference between a Jewish person and a Zionist fanatic.
πππ₯ππ¬ππ’π§π’ππ§π¬ π‘ππ―π π π«π’π π‘π ππ¨ πππππ§π ππ‘ππ¦π¬ππ₯π―ππ¬ ππ§π π ππ’π§ π’π§πππ©ππ§πππ§ππ
— Nasir Khan
In normal circumstances, people side with victims of colonial oppression, even though some anti-freedom governments take a different stance. Today, many Western governments, all closely associated with Israel and supporters of Israeli crimes against its captive population, did the same as expected. They are repeating the oft-repeated old mouldy mantra of Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’.
But none of these governments, which closely follow Washington’s anti-Palestinian policies, have uttered a word about what the extreme right-wing government of Netanyahu is doing almost daily in the occupied West Bank and its refugee camps. Israeli soldiers kill, raid the Palestinian camps, arrest and terrorise all people.
Why do the US rulers and their Western allies remain totally indifferent to what the Netanyahu government is doing and what the Jewish settlers are doing with the Palestinians there? The answer is that the US rulers are quite happy with such colonial crimes. Not only that, they see such crimes and deplorable conditions imposed on the Palestinians as the right opportunity to bring Saudi Arabia under the wings of Israel.
Hamas militants started their bold military action today in response to what Israel was doing to the third-holiest shrine of Islam, Al Aqsa mosque. Where there is oppression, resistance is a natural reaction. The reaction of Gaza militants was not a mystery.
But why does no Western ruler say that the people of Palestine also have the right to defend themselves when they are being ethnically cleansed and their land gradually stolen from them?
Will President Joe Biden and his secretary Blinken set a new precedent and declare that the people of Palestine have every right to defend themselves and help them to this end? That will be something of a game changer and an unexpected shift to truth and justice.
We will soon see what they and their allies do to defend the people of Palestine.
They will do nothing.
Netanyahu vows to obliterate Gaza. For sure the white supremists of Israel have been commiting genocide, torture, bombing the Palestinians for 75 years so nothing new about what Netanyahu has vowed to do.
PhD, do you truly believe that your people in Israel have the right to murder, steal, and torture Palestinians? Are you really that sick or is it because you believe that you are chosen by your God to murder and steal from others. Your God must be as sick as you seem to be.
Woopy, as that thing Abraham FkFeld asked that what is the difference between Zionists fanatics & Jewish person ..?? He should know that Zionists Fanatics are them European White Supremacists hiding behind the garb of Jewish umbrella & calling themselves Jews. The real true Jews are those who were living in Palestine peacefully as Palestinians before 1945-1948 when them white criminal extremists invaded Palestine after being deported-exported from Europe by Christian European countries as nobody wanted them in Europe & then at that time them colonialist mfkr Brits connived with them Zionists carving out Palestinian land and forcefully occupy the peaceful land where Jews, Muslims, Christians lived together in harmony. Even today the real true Jews in Palestine are badly mistreated by these Zionist extremists.
The comment is just ignorance of our Jewish Bund which was Anti-Zionist since 1897. I am speaking for the https://Jewish-Socialist-Bund.net/
To one who cannot tell the difference between the Zionist State and the Jewish People, that is just Zionist brainwashing that you have not noticed.
PhD the people on this forum are not against you and can accept you for whatever you claim to be. The people here are against genocide, land stealing, torture and the lies told about it no matter who is doing it. The white supremists of Israel have obviously in plain sight for many decades been murdering people throughout the middle east and we are against their actions. When you say that you are not a participant of the genocide there is no reason not to believe you. So hopefully you will continue to live a peaceful life.