Save the article
Hundreds of people have been killed on both sides in the dramatic escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Here’s what we know so far:
* At dawn on Saturday morning, around 6:30 a.m., during the Jewish holiday simchat torah, the Islamist group Hamas carried out a surprise attack on Israel. Thousands of rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza and explosives and bulldozers were used to breach the fence surrounding the Palestinian enclave.
* Using motorcycles, pickup trucks, motorized gliders and speedboats, the militiamen also poured into Israeli border towns such as Ashkelon, Sderot and Ofakim.
* Israel responded by launching a massive airstrike against the Gaza Strip.
* Over 600 people are said to have been killed in Israel according to Israeli media reports and over 370 people have been killed in Gaza according to the health authorities there.
* Hamas has seized Israeli military equipment and taken an unknown number of Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, hostage. Some of them are said to have been freed, but on Sunday morning the number of prisoners was still around 100. Among them are said to be women, children and the elderly.
* Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on residents of the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening to leave their homes and seek shelter in other areas because “we will act everywhere with all our power”. Tens of thousands of soldiers have reportedly been deployed in the southern desert areas of Israel near Gaza with the aim of freeing the Israeli hostages and evacuating the entire region within 24 hours.
* Hamas has called on “resistance fighters in the West Bank” and in Arab and Islamic nations to join the fight. Early on Sunday, the Iran-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah fired robots and artillery shells at Israel from Lebanon “in solidarity with the Hamas offensive.”
* On Sunday, Israel declared that the country is formally at war. The decision gives the country permission to “take significant military action”, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemns “in the strongest terms” Hamas’ attack on Israel and calls for “diplomatic efforts to avoid a wider conflagration”. The UN Security Council is holding an extraordinary meeting on the conflict on Sunday.
* The West, where most see Hamas as a terrorist organization, has also condemned the Islamist group’s attack on Israel. US President Joe Biden says there is never anything that justifies terrorist attacks and assures that US support for Israel is “unwavering”.
* European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “unequivocally condemns the attack carried out by Hamas terrorists against Israel”. Russia calls for an “immediate ceasefire” and Saudi Arabia calls for an “immediate end to the escalation between the two sides, protection of civilians and self-control”.
* In Iran, however, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has expressed his support for the Hamas attack, calling it “a proud operation”. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who also supports the Palestinian cause, urges both sides to “stay away from impulsive steps that increase tensions.”
* Hamas’s surprise attack completely caught Israel off guard and is seen as a fiasco for the country’s security and intelligence services, which are considered among the most advanced in the world.
* The attack is seen as Israel’s worst in half a century and occurred almost to the day 50 years after the outbreak of the October 1973 war.