Israel attack: PM says Israel at war after 100 killed in attack from Gaza
By BBC News
AT least 100 people have been killed in Israel after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its biggest attack in years.
Militants crossed into Israel from Gaza under the cover of heavy rocket fire â and have since taken dozens of Israelis captive.
Some hostages â both soldiers and civilians â were taken back to Gaza.
Israel has responded with a wave of air strikes on targets in Gaza killing 198 people, Palestinian officials say.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was âat warâ and vowed that Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, will âpay a price it has never knownâ.
âThis morning Hamas launched a murderous surprise attack against the state of Israel and its citizens,â he said.
This is one of the most serious escalations in the Israel-Palestinian conflict in years.
The attack by Hamas saw fighters cross the perimeter fence at just after dawn. At the same time, barrages of rockets were launched from Gaza â some reaching as far as the cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
How the gunmen managed to penetrate one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world is unclear.
The Israeli military has said dozens of fighter jets are carrying out air strikes on Hamas sites in Gaza, and it has hit 17 Hamas military compounds. It also said it has mobilised tens of thousands of reservists.
The Palestinian health ministry says 198 people have been killed in Israeli strikes. and another 1,610 have been wounded.
Israeli bombs destroyed an 11-story tower in downtown Gaza City which houses Hamas radio stations in the rooftop.
Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said a nurse and an ambulance driver were killed in Israeli strikes on two hospitals in Gaza.
Reuters news agency reported Israelâs energy minister, Israel Katz, as saying that Israel will cut off Gazaâs electricity supply.
The rocket barrages from Gaza â the biggest attack by Hamas on Israel in years â began just after dawn on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath and the day of the festival of Simchat Torah.
As sirens sounded across Israel, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced that âterroristsâ had infiltrated Israeli territory âin a number of different locationsâ.
People in towns close to Gaza have been calling in to Israeli news stations saying they were trapped in their homes, as militants entered their towns and villages.
In the town of Sderot, only 1.6km (1 mile) from Gaza, videos posted online appeared to show a group of heavily armed Palestinian militants driving around in a pick-up truck and exchanging fire with Israeli forces.
The BBC understands that dozens of hostages, both military and civilian, have been taken by Hamas â an unprecedented development.
Some are thought to be being held in some of the small towns near the Gaza Strip, while others have been taken back into Gaza.
Hamas claimed it has captured 53 âprisoners of warâ including senior officers from Israelâs army, and that many were being held in tunnels â which have been prime targets for Israel in previous wars.
A spokesperson for the IDF confirmed that âsoldiers and civiliansâ had been abducted, and some soldiers had been killed â but denied reports that a top general has been kidnapped.
The IDF said they were fighting Hamas in 22 locations â and militants had also entered into Israel by sea, at Zikim on the coast just north of Gaza.
Footage is also circulating of Palestinians driving Israeli military vehicles in Gaza.
Mohammed Deif, a senior Hamas military commander, announced the start of the attack on Hamas media. âThis is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on Earth,â he said, and called on Palestinians everywhere to fight.
Ismail Haniyeh, the leader-in-exile of Hamas, later claimed that Palestinian factions intended to expand the violence to the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas spokesman, told the BBC World Service that the group had direct backing for the attack from Iran. An adviser to Iranâs supreme leader had earlier said the country would âstand by the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalemâ.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas â a political rival of Hamas â said the Palestinian people had the right to defend themselves against the âterror of settlers and occupation troopsâ.
A major investigation has been launched as to how Israeli intelligence failed to see the well-coordinated Hamas attack coming, Israeli government officials have told the BBC.
There has been strong international condemnation to the Hamas attacks, with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly saying the UK âunequivocally condemns the horrific attacks by Hamas on Israeli civiliansâ.
Nato condemned the âterrorist attacksâ by Hamas against Israel, while the UN secretary general said he was âappalled by reports that civilians have been attacked and abducted from their own homesâ.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described it as âterrorism in its most despicable formâ â while the US said it âunequivocally condemns the unprovoked attacksâ and âthere is never any justification for terrorismâ.
Qatarâs foreign ministry said Israel alone was responsible for the ongoing escalation of violence.
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