Live updates: Israel 'at war' over Gaza attack, hundreds dead

Here’s a wrap of the latest developments:

Hamas militants fired thousands of rockets into Israel about 6am on Saturday (Israel time), catching Israel’s intelligence and military services unawares as millions of Israelis were celebrating a religious holiday. Armed Hamas militants infiltrated southern towns raining gunfire on civilians. Israeli soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped and taken back to Gaza.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared war, vowing that Israel will exact an “unprecedented price” for one of the deadliest attacks on the nation’s home soil. Israel has retaliated with air strikes on Gaza, flattening several residential buildings.Israeli media have reported at least 250 deaths and Israel’s health ministry reported more than 1500 wounded by the Palestinian military attack. Israel’s retaliatory attack on Gaza has killed at least 232 people and injured nearly 1700, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The death toll on both sides is expected to rise.World leaders from across the globe have condemned the surprise assault on Israel, including US President Joe Biden. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia stands with its Israeli ally. “We condemn the indiscriminate and abhorrent attacks by Hamas on Israel, its cities and civilians,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We recognise Israel’s right to defend itself.”

Read our full story here.

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Israel was in shock Saturday, with the unprecedented scenes of violence and chaos unfolding across the country’s south.

Israelis peeked out their windows to see terrifying scenes of armed Hamas militants outside, trying to break into their houses and shooting at anyone they saw.

Thousands of Israeli party-goers at a desert rave screamed and ran for their lives as bloodied victims collapsed around them. Family members searching for missing loved ones were shaken to recognize them in haunting social media videos showing Hamas militants taking terrified Israelis hostage.

An Israeli soldier stands by the bodies of Israelis killed by Palestinian armed militants who entered from the Gaza Strip, in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. Credit: AP

Israel’s Channel 12 aired a string of harrowing phone call recordings by civilians trapped inside their homes as militants closed in. The callers used hushed tones to describe terrifying scenes to their loved ones.

“We can hear them, they’re breaking in through the windows and there’s no one here to help us,” one caller said.

A son whispered to his mother that he could hear gunshots. She pleaded with him to find somewhere secure to hide. Another caller told her relative she wasn’t sure whether she would get out safely. “I love you, I love you,” she said.

Families who huddled in their basements had little idea what was unfolding above them but heard deeply disturbing sounds — not just the usual shriek of rockets and muffled bangs of explosions, they said, but the loud crackling of gunfire that indicated fighters were on the ground, and getting closer.

While the Israeli military’s Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system intercepted some 90 per cent of Gaza rockets heading for populated areas, there was nothing protecting Israelis from armed militants opening fire and entering their homes.

“We are too scared to go out (from the shelter) even for a second to get water or food or use the bathroom because we know they are still fighting out there,” said Janet Cwaigenbaum, a 57-year-old in the southern kibbutz of Nir Yitzhak.

AP

The following timeline, which begins with Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, details the major flare-ups in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian groups in the crowded coastal enclave, which is home to 2.3 million people.

August 2005 - Israeli forces unilaterally withdraw from Gaza 38 years after capturing it from Egypt in the Middle East war, abandoning settlements and leaving the enclave under the control of the Palestinian Authority.Jan. 25, 2006 - The Islamist group Hamas wins a majority of seats in a Palestinian legislative election. Israel and the U.S. cut off aid to Palestinians because Hamas refuses to renounce violence and recognise Israel.June 25, 2006 - Hamas militants capture Israeli army conscript Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid from Gaza, prompting Israeli air strikes and incursions. Shalit is finally freed more than five years later in a prisoner exchange.June 14, 2007 - Hamas takes over Gaza in a brief civil war, ousting Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.Credit: AP

Dec. 27, 2008 - Israel launches a 22-day military offensive in Gaza after Palestinians fire rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot. About 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis are reported killed before a ceasefire is agreed.Nov. 14, 2012 - Israel kills Hamas’s military chief of staff, Ahmad Jabari. Eight days of Palestinian militant rocket fire and Israeli air strikes follow.July-August 2014 - The kidnap and killing of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas leads to a seven-week war in which more than 2,100 Palestinians are reported killed in Gaza and 73 Israelis are reported dead, 67 of them military.March 2018 - Palestinian protests begin at Gaza’s fenced border with Israel. Israeli troops open fire to keep protestors back. More than 170 Palestinians are reported killed in several months of protests, which also prompt fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces.May 2021 - After weeks of tension during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, hundreds of Palestinians are wounded in clashes with Israeli security forces at the Al Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest site. After demanding Israel withdraw security forces from the compound, Hamas unleashes a barrage of rockets from Gaza into Israel. Israel hits back with air strikes on Gaza. Fighting goes on for 11 days, killing at least 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel.

Fighting in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in 2021.Credit: AP

Aug 2022 - At least 44 people, including 15 children, are killed in three days of violence that begin when Israeli air strikes hit a senior Islamic Jihad commander. Israel says the strikes were a pre-emptive operation against an imminent attack by the Iranian-backed militant movement, targeting commanders and arms depots. In response, Islamic Jihad fires more than 1,000 rockets towards Israel. Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system prevents any serious damage or casualties.Jan 2023 - Islamic Jihad in Gaza fires two rockets towards Israel after Israeli troops raid a refugee camp and kill seven Palestinian gunmen and two civilians. The rockets set off alarms in Israeli communities near the border but cause no casualties. Israel responds with air strikes on Gaza.Oct 2023 - Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in years from the Gaza Strip, with a surprise assault combining gunmen crossing the border with a heavy barrage of rockets. Islamic Jihad says its fighters have joined the attack. Israel’s military said it was on a war footing, adding it had carried out strikes targeting Hamas in Gaza and had called up reservists.

Reuters

Saturday’s surprise attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas may represent one of the biggest failures by Israeli intelligence since the Yom Kippur war of 1973.

The attack involved dozens of infiltrations by land and sea, together with rocket attacks — a sophisticated assault that intelligence agencies are supposed to pick up on.

While Israeli officials have said for months that Palestinian militant groups were preparing for violence, the timing and scale of the attack appear to have caught Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by surprise.

“It’s shocking to me that they were able to do it without Israel or the United States picking up on it,” said Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Failure to prepare. Failure to have troops along the border, failure of the fence along the border that they paid millions of shekels for.”

The attack comes 50 years after Israel’s failure to head off a surprise attack that Egypt and Syria launched on the Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur.

Israeli officials said it was far too soon to know what went wrong, and rejected any comparison to 1973.

“Please don’t give Hamas the sophistication of the Yom Kippur War,” Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Richard Hecht said. “I know there are a lot of questions about the intelligence. Please stop asking. Right now we’re fighting. I’m sure there will be a lot of discussions about the intelligence down the road.”

Bloomberg

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has condemned the multi-front attack by Hamas against Israel. She says Australia recognises the country’s right to defend itself.

“Australia unequivocally condemns the attacks on Israel by Hamas including indiscriminate rocket fire on cities & civilians,” Senator Wong wrote on social media platform X.

“We call for these attacks to stop & recognise Israel’s right to defend itself.”

Wong added that “Australia urges the exercise of restraint & protection of civilian lives”.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese denounced the “discriminate and abhorrent” attack on social media Israeli earlier this morning.

With AAP

Here’s a wrap of the latest developments:

Hamas militants fired thousands of rockets into Israel about 6am on Saturday (Israel time), catching Israel’s intelligence and military services unawares as millions of Israelis were celebrating a religious holiday. Armed Hamas militants infiltrated southern towns raining gunfire on civilians. Israeli soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped and taken back to Gaza.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared war, vowing that Israel will exact an “unprecedented price” for one of the deadliest attacks on the nation’s home soil. Israel has retaliated with air strikes on Gaza, flattening several residential buildings.Israeli media have reported at least 250 deaths and Israel’s health ministry reported more than 1500 wounded by the Palestinian military attack. Israel’s retaliatory attack on Gaza has killed at least 232 people and injured nearly 1700, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The death toll on both sides is expected to rise.World leaders from across the globe have condemned the surprise assault on Israel, including US President Joe Biden. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia stands with its Israeli ally. “We condemn the indiscriminate and abhorrent attacks by Hamas on Israel, its cities and civilians,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We recognise Israel’s right to defend itself.”

Read our full story here.

A short time ago, US President Joe Biden gave a statement on the fighting.

Biden said America “unequivocally condemns” what he described as an “appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza”.

The president confirmed he has spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and affirmed America’s support for Israel, following the Hamas attacks.

US President Joe Biden speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Saturday.Credit: Saturday, Oct 7, 2023. Photographer: Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg

“I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the government and people of Israel,” Biden said.

“Terrorism is never justified. Israel has a right to defend itself and its people. My administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering.”

Read the full statement here.

Good morning, welcome to our live coverage of the attack on Israel from Gaza.

I’m Timna Jacks and I’ll be bringing you all the developments as they happen this morning.