Israeli soldiers battled Hamas fighters in the streets of Israel's south on Sunday, October 8, and exchanged strikes with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group in the north, while Israel's retaliation strikes leveled buildings in Gaza. The prospect of Hezbollah joining the fighting a day after an unprecedented surprise attack from Gaza raises the chances of a broader conflict.
Hamas fighters, backed by a volley of thousands of rockets, broke through barricades around Gaza early Saturday to rampage through nearby communities in Israel. They took captives back into the coastal enclave, including women, children and the elderly, while Israel's retaliation strikes leveled buildings in Gaza and its prime minister said the country was at war. Israeli media, citing rescue service officials, said at least 300 people were killed, including 26 soldiers.
Civilians paid a staggering cost on both sides. More than 300 people have been killed in Gaza, while residents fled homes near the border to escape Israeli strikes, heading deeper inside the territory after warnings from the Israeli military. In Israel, TV news aired a stream of accounts from the relatives of captive or missing Israelis, who wailed and begged for assistance amid uncertainty about the fate of their loved ones. Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that "hundreds of terrorists" have been killed and dozens captured.
Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers brought widespread destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns. The situation is potentially more volatile now, with Israel's far-right government stung by the security breach and Palestinians in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza.
The flare-up on Israel's northern border also threatened to draw into the battle Hezbollah, a fierce enemy of Israel that is backed by Iran and estimated to have tens of thousands of rockets at its disposal. Hezbollah struck Israeli positions in a disputed area along the border with Syria's Golan Heights, and Israel's military responded with armed drone strikes on Hezbollah targets in a disputed area where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet.
In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing Gaza, then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speed boats on the coast. They rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip early Saturday morning, including towns and other communities as far as 24 kilometers from the Gaza border, while Hamas launched thousands of rockets at Israeli cities.
"Israel is waking up this morning to a terrible morning," said Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman. "There are a lot of people killed (...) children, grandmothers, families, bodies."
On Sunday, the Israeli military said its forces were fighting Hamas incursions in eight places. An Israeli military spokesperson said that two hostage situations had been "resolved," but did not say whether all the hostages had been rescued alive.
Israel struck 426 targets in Gaza, its military said, flattening residential buildings in giant explosions. That included a 14-story tower that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israeli forces fired a warning just before. Among the 313 killed in Gaza were 20 children, and close to 2,000 wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinians, said more than 20,000 Palestinians left Gaza's border region to head further inside the territory and take refuge in UN schools.
Israeli media said at least 300 people were killed and 1,500 wounded in Saturday's attack, making it the deadliest in Israel in decades. Hamas fighters took an unknown number of civilians and soldiers captive into Gaza and a line of Israelis with missing relatives snaked outside a police station in central Israel to supply investigators with DNA samples and other means that could help identify their family members.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets and shells on Sunday at three Israeli positions in the disputed area and Israel's military fired back using armed drones at the Lebanese areas. Israel and Hezbollah are archenemies and have fought several wars in the past, the most recent being a 34-day conflict in 2006 that left 1,200 dead in Lebanon and 160 in Israel. Tensions have been simmering along Israel's northern border for months.
In a televised address Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military will use all of its strength to destroy Hamas' capabilities. "All the places that Hamas hides in, operates from, we will turn them into ruins," he added.
"Get out of there now," he told Gaza residents, who have no way to leave the tiny, overcrowded Mediterranean territory. Gaza's 2.3 million people have endured a border blockade, enforced to varying degrees by Israel and Egypt, since Hamas militants seized control in 2007. In Gaza, much of the population was thrown into darkness Saturday night as Israel cut off electricity. Netanyahu's office said in a statement that Israel would stop supplying electricity, fuel and goods to Gaza.
Before daybreak Sunday, militants fired more rockets from Gaza, hitting a hospital in the Israeli coastal town of Ashkelon, said senior hospital official Tal Bergman. Video provided by Barzilai Medical Center showed a large hole punched into a wall and chunks of debris scattered on the ground of what appeared to be an empty room and a hallway. The military said patients had been evacuated from Barzilai before the strike. School was canceled across Israel.
The shadowy leader of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, and a series of recent incidents that have brought Israeli-Palestinian tensions to a fever pitch. Over the past year, Israel's far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around the Al-Aqsa mosque, a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.