Oct 7, 2023 at 11:06 PM Update: 2 hours ago
Hundreds of people were killed and injured on the Israeli and Palestinian sides on Saturday. That happened after Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip, launched a surprise attack on Israel. What do we know so far?
Follow the latest developments surrounding violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories in our live blog.
Hamas’ attack on Israel began Saturday morning with thousands of rockets. Hamas fighters also managed to cross the heavily guarded border between the occupied Gaza Strip and Israel, including with paragliders. Hamas announced the attack as “the day of the great battle to end the last occupation on earth.”
Such attacks on Israel happen often, but as many as there were on Saturday is very exceptional. Moreover, it did not stop at rockets. Hamas fighters swept through Israeli border villages killing or kidnapping civilians into the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’s rockets hit targets near the Gaza Strip as well as in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The fighting by Hamas fighters on Israeli territory mainly took place around the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
The timing of the attack is striking. Saturday is almost exactly fifty years after the start of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when Syria and Egypt carried out a surprise attack on October 6. Furthermore, Saturday is Shabbat, the weekly day of rest, in Israel. It is also Simchat Torah, the national holiday celebrating the Jewish people’s possession of the Torah. It is a day when many people are at home.
Israel responded quickly with a counterattack, dubbed Operation Iron Swords. This mainly consists of air strikes on the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced war a few hours later. “We are at war and we will win,” he said in a recorded statement.
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Israel was particularly surprised by the complexity and coordination of Hamas’ massive attack, which was unprecedented in the sense. But the attack itself was not unexpected, critics note. Violence has been increasing for some time due to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories and the structural violence that accompanies it. Pro-Israeli parties speak of “terror” and “right to self-defense”, but pro-Palestinian parties talk of “resistance to the occupation” and “apartheid”.
2023 is the deadliest year in the region since 2005, with deaths mainly on the Palestinian side. Since 2008, a total of 6,407 Palestinian and 308 Israeli deaths have occurred, according to United Nations figures.
Hamas quickly received support from the Palestinian militant movement Islamic Jihad. Images on social media showed Palestinian gunmen killing people in Israeli towns.
During the day, Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced that they had captured Israeli civilians and soldiers. Images on social media show how some were taken to the Gaza Strip. Israel later confirmed this news. Hamas already spoke of “enough fighters” to force a prisoner exchange with Israel. The group’s goal is to free all Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, where they are often treated poorly.
According to Hamas, Saturday’s attack is just the beginning. The terror group’s leader said the organization is “on the verge of a great victory” and plans to expand the fight into the West Bank. Israel, in turn, will respond harshly, Netanyahu promised. “Our enemy will pay a price never seen before,” the Israeli prime minister said.
The UN Security Council will meet on Sunday to discuss the violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip. In the meantime, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has adjusted the travel advice to Israel and the Palestinian Territories and several airlines, including KLM, have canceled their flights to Israel.
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Israel destroys Hamas targets in Gaza
2023-10-07 21:06:00
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