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Fire and smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea, killing dozens and stunning the country. Palestinian health officials reported scores of deaths from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
The flare-up on Israel’s northern border threatened to draw into the battle a fierce enemy of Israel’s which is backed by Iran and estimated to have tens of thousands of rockets at its disposal. At least 256 people in the Gaza Strip were killed in Israeli strikes, including 20 children, and close to 1,800 wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
In a televised address Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military will use all of its strength to destroy Hamas’ capabilities.“Get out of there now,” he told Gaza residents, who have no way to leave the tiny, overcrowded Mediterranean territory. The strength, sophistication and timing of the Saturday morning attack shocked Israelis. Hamas fighters used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing Gaza, and then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speedboats on the coast.
After one Israeli strike, a Hamas rocket barrage hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb. Throughout the day, Hamas fired more than 3,500 rockets, the Israeli military said. The Hamas incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, aiming to take back Israeli-occupied territories.
Associated Press photos showed an elderly Israeli woman being brought into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle. AP journalists saw four people taken from the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, including two women. Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has put the country’s air force on standby to evacuate its citizens if needed. The Philippine government said it was still working to verify the reports.
In Gaza, much of the population was thrown into darkness after nightfall as electrical supplies from Israel—which supplies almost all the territories’ power—were cut off. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel would stop supplying electricity, fuel and goods to Gaza.
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