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Hamas-Israel conflict as it happened: Israel ‘at war’ over Gaza attack, hundreds dead

Timna Jacks and Catherine Naylor
Updated ,first published

Key Posts

Second exchange of fire on Lebanese border
Israeli tourists killed in Egypt
UN working to ‘contain situation’ after Hezbollah targets Israel from Lebanon
More than 300 Israelis dead, as military warns of ‘long’ conflict
Timeline: How the Hamas attack unfolded
Hezbollah claims responsibility for attack near Lebanese border
Fighting spreads to Lebanon as Middle East wakes to second day of violence
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Pinned post from 7.20pm on Oct 8, 2023
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More than 300 Israelis dead, as military warns of ‘long’ conflict

By Catherine Naylor

The Israeli embassy in Turkey has issued an updated death toll from Hamas’ attack on Israel, telling the BBC that more than 300 Israelis have now been killed and almost 2,000 are in hospital, including 19 people in a critical condition.

Fighting is continuing on the ground in Israel, more than 24 hours after Hamas launched its shock attack on the country from the Gaza Strip, with officials warning of a protracted conflict.

An Israeli air strike on the Rimal district of Gaza City on Saturday.Bloomberg

Israel retaliated to the attack with air strikes through the night that killed 313 Palestinians, including 20 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, wounded almost 2000, and destroyed buildings, tunnels and the houses of Hamas officials.

In southern Israel on Sunday morning, Hamas gunmen were still fighting Israeli security forces in several places, both sides said.

“We’re going to be attacking Hamas severely and this is going to be a long, long haul,” an Israeli military spokesman told a briefing with reporters.

with Reuters

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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vows to take “mighty vengeance”

By Lucy Cormack

That’s where we will leave our coverage of the ongoing violence in Israel, where fighting is into its second day after a highly coordinated attack by Hamas militants. A quick recap on today’s major developments:

  • Several Israeli media outlets are reporting that the death toll from Hamas’ wide-ranging incursion into Israel has risen to 600, virtually doubling earlier estimates on Sunday.
  • Two exchanges of fire took place on Israel’s border with Lebanon, after Hezbollah targeted Israeli-occupied land on Sunday morning and Israel retaliated. The UN is working to contain the situation.
  • Gun battles in southern Israel continued through the weekend, while militants held hostages in stand-offs in two towns.
  • Hundreds of Israelis have attended a central police station to provide DNA, and others have turned to social media searching for news of loved ones missing in the violence.
  • Israeli air strikes on Gaza began soon after the Hamas attack and continued overnight and into Sunday, destroying the group’s offices and training camps, but also civilian houses and other buildings.
  • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he would take “mighty vengeance” on Hamas militants and threatened to turn parts of the Gaza Strip to ruins.
  • Hamas continues to hold a large number of Israeli captives, including senior officials. Netanyahu said citizens taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip included children and the elderly.
  • Hundreds of music festival revellers were sent running for their lives across the plains of the Negev Desert, close to the Gaza Strip, as Palestinian militants in vehicles followed in a terrifying pursuit and gunfire rang out.

Thank you for staying with us. Our live coverage will continue at 6am on Sunday.

Harrowing video of German woman’s naked body paraded by Hamas

By Ellen Connolly

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this post referred to crossfire at the Supernova festival. This was incorrect and has been updated.

A young German tattoo artist has been identified as the woman who was killed while fleeing a music festival - her naked body then paraded through the streets of Gaza by Hamas terrorists.

Shani Louk, 23, was among the hundreds of victims who attempted to flee as militants stormed an outdoor dance party near Kibbutz Urim, close to the border with Gaza.

Shani Louk, 23, was among the hundreds of victims that were caught in the crossfire as militants stormed an outdoor dance party.

As footage of the early stages of the raid circulated online, family members recognised the 23-year-old girl as one of the victims, The Telegraph reported.

British man killed and another missing

By

London: A London-born man who was serving in the Israeli army died on Saturday on the Gaza border, his family said, and another British man is missing, Israel’s embassy in London said on Sunday.

Jewish News said Nathanel Young was one of the many Israeli soldiers who were killed in a multi-pronged attack by Palestinian gunmen. A family statement on Facebook said: “We’re heartbroken to share that our little brother Nathanel Young was tragically killed on the Gaza Border yesterday.”

A second man went missing early on Saturday, the embassy said.

An Israeli family arrives to a police station in Lod, Israel, to provide DNA samples to help identify a relative missing since a Hamas militant attack near the Gaza border.

His mother, Lisa, told Jewish News that Jake Marlowe, 26, had been providing security at a music festival and she last heard from her son via text message.

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Israeli media say death toll has risen to 600

By Ellen Connolly

Several Israeli media outlets are reporting that the death toll from Hamas’ wide-ranging incursion into Israel has risen to 600.

The Kan public broadcaster and Channel 12, as well as the Haaretz and Times of Israel newspapers, reported the toll late on Saturday (AEDT).

The number is significantly higher than the 350 that has been widely reported and confirmed by reliable Israeli sources.

As reported by Nine’s Lucy Cormack, Israeli soldiers and civilians have been kidnapped, with harrowing videos spreading online depicting those taken captive in what has quickly become the deadliest attack on Israeli soil in decades. Earlier Sunday evening (AEDT), at least 350 Israelis were confirmed dead.

Reuters

Desperate Israeli parents search for missing children

By

Hundreds of stunned Israelis filed into a central police station on Sunday hoping for word on the fate of loved ones lost in the wake of a mass Palestinian infiltration from the Gaza Strip.

Not only was the number of those unaccounted for unknown, but many were believed to have been taken captive into Gaza -including young children - with others hiding in their besieged Israeli villages.

The Gaza border region, which is just an hour’s drive from the police information centre in Airport City, remained sealed off by the military as troops continued street-by-street battles with gunmen, learning with each stage the extent of the carnage.

Israeli police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

One mother spoke with Reuters after giving her DNA sample and handing over a brush with hair follicles from her son, who was at an outdoor dance party that was stormed by Hamas gunmen. She declined to give her name.

Palestinians search for loved ones as Israel pounds Gaza

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Israeli air strikes on Gaza began soon after the Hamas attack and continued overnight and into Sunday, destroying the group’s offices and training camps, but also houses and other buildings.

Hamas said Israel had cut off water to some areas. Palestinian health officials said 313 people had been killed in Gaza and nearly 2,000 wounded in the retaliatory strikes.

Black smoke, orange flashes and sparks lit the sky from explosions. Israeli drones could be heard overhead.

A destroyed car following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Sunday.

Unlike in some previous rounds of strikes, Israel’s military did not give advance warning of strikes on residential buildings.

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Questions over Israel’s next move

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A major question now is whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties.

The Hamas attack on Israel at dawn on Saturday has so far claimed the lives of more than 300 Israelis, according to officials, with almost 2000 more injured and dozens taken captive into Gaza. Palestinian officials report similar casualty numbers from Israel’s retaliatory air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Hamas “will pay an unprecedented price” and warned “this war will take time. It will be difficult.”

Israel’s military said it had deployed tens of thousands of soldiers in the area surrounding Gaza, a narrow strip that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians, and planned to evacuate all Israelis living around the frontier of the territory.

Defence chiefs in spotlight over ‘devastating’ intelligence failure

By Emily Rose

As Israel reeled from a deadly attack by Hamas militants who broke through barriers around Gaza and roamed at will, killing scores of civilians in Israeli towns and taking others captive, defence chiefs faced growing questions over how the disaster could have happened.

A day after the 50th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur war, when Israeli forces were caught off guard by Syrian and Egyptian tank columns, the military appeared once again to have been surprised by a sudden attack.

A digger removes the rubble from the Sderot police station on Sunday, which Hamas fighters overran.AP

“It looks quite similar to what happened at that time,” retired General Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council, said.

“As we can see it, Israel was completely surprised, by a very well co-ordinated attack.”

Pope calls for end to conflict

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Pope Francis has called for end to the attacks and violence in Israel, saying terrorism and war would not solve any problems but only bring further suffering and death to innocent people.

“War is a defeat, only a defeat. Let’s pray for peace in Israel and Palestine,” the Pope said in his weekly address to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

Family and friends mourn a Palestinian man in Gaza City on Sunday.Ahmad Hasballah/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Air France has suspended flights to Tel Aviv, where buildings were destroyed by rockets during the Hamas assault on Israel.

So far, 30 hours of fighting has left more than 600 dead and thousands injured on both sides of the Gaza border, with Israel launching retaliatory air strikes on the Gaza Strip through Saturday and into Sunday.

Reuters

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All eyes on oil prices as market prepares to reopen amid conflict

By Grant Smith

As oil traders prepare for the market to open after the sudden eruption of violence in Israel, one question is key: will the conflict spread to the rest of the region?

Crude traders don’t expect a massive price surge as there’s no immediate threat to supply. But all eyes are on Iran, a major oil producer and key backer of Hamas, which launched the unprecedented assault on Israel on Saturday.

All eyes are on Iran, a major oil producer and key backer of the Hamas group.AP

A retaliatory strike against the Islamic Republic would inflame fears over the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping artery which Tehran has previously threatened to shutter. There’s also the prospect of the United States cracking down again on a resurgent flow of Iranian oil exports.

The “oil-disruption scenario,” according to Former White House official and Rapidan Energy Group president Bob McNally said the “oil-disruption scenario would be if conflict spread to Iran” but for now, that looked unlikely.

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