Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Israelis this Sunday, October 8, that they were “embarked in a long and difficult war” having already left hundreds of dead on both sides, the day after a spectacular offensive by Palestinian Hamas launched from Gaza. The Israeli army, for its part, announced this morning that it had struck with a drone a Lebanese “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure” in the border area, after Hezbollah said it had fired “a large number of shells and guided missiles” on the contested sector of Chebaa Farms.
“The first phase is coming to an end […] by eliminating the vast majority of enemy forces that have infiltrated our territory,” the head of government said in a pre-dawn statement about the Hamas offensive. During the night, airstrikes from the army continued on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian territory under the control of Hamas from where shooting continued on Israel. Fighting continued on the ground between Israeli forces and armed elements of this Islamist movement infiltrated into Israel since the day before .
The siege of the police station in the town of Sderot, bordering Gaza, where armed Hamas men were holed up ended on Sunday morning, the police announced in a statement: the police and the special forces of the army “have neutralized ten armed terrorists who were in the police station. Hamas attacked Israel by surprise on Saturday morning, firing thousands of rockets from the Gaza Strip and infiltrating hundreds of fighters into Israeli territory, where it also captured a significant number of civilians and soldiers. The Israeli online news site Ynet puts forward “an estimate of around a hundred people […] kidnapped” while the authorities have not yet provided any figures.
Surprise Hamas offensive on Israeli territory
© / afp.com/Patricio ARANA, Aude GENET
Relatives not found
Israelis searching for their untraceable loved ones were repeatedly questioned on Israeli radio and television on Sunday. Some explained that they had seen them on videos of Hamas hostages in Gaza circulating on social networks. The media also listed this Sunday morning the names of Israelis killed on Saturday and identified, including children and adolescents. The Israeli army published on a special website the identities of 26 soldiers, men and women, killed since Saturday.
Taking advantage of the element of surprise, Hamas fighters aboard vehicles, boats and even motorized paragliders made use of the imposing barrier erected by Israel around the Gaza Strip, attacking military positions or civilians in full street. It is the deadliest escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades. The fighting left “more than 200 dead” and “more than 1,000 injured” on the Israeli side, according to the army, which accused Hamas of having “massacred civilians” even in their homes. In the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army has been carrying out dozens of retaliatory airstrikes since Saturday, Hamas has counted 256 dead and 1,788 injured.
“Unprecedented”
“What happened today is unprecedented in Israel,” admitted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a televised address. “All these places where Hamas hides (…) we are going to turn them into ruins.” “We are on the verge of winning a great victory,” said Ismaïl Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas. Hostilities began at dawn on Saturday with a barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip towards neighboring Israeli towns and as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. “I saw a lot of bodies,” Shlomi, an Israeli, told AFP, alongside covered corpses on a road near Kibbutz Gevim, in the south of the country.
Palestinians take control of an Israeli tank after crossing the border into Israel from Khan Yunis, October 7, 2023 in the southern Gaza Strip.
© / afp.com/SAID KHATIB
On Saturday evening, the Israeli army reported “hundreds” of infiltrators still present on Israeli soil after a “powerful ground invasion”. This escalation comes fifty years and one day after the start of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war which took Israel completely by surprise, leading to the death of 2,600 Israelis and leaving at least 9,500 dead and missing on the Arab side in three weeks of combat.
“Sabres” versus “Flood”
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed in a video to have “captured several enemy soldiers” and the al-Quds Brigades, the military branch of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also declared that they were holding “numerous soldiers” Israeli. The army spokesperson confirmed that “Israeli soldiers and civilians” had been kidnapped, without providing any figures. The commander of the Al-Qassam brigades, Mohammad Deif, announced that he had launched an operation called “Al-Aqsa flood” against Israel and had fired more than “5,000 rockets” to “put an end to all the crimes of the occupation” . The Israeli army, for its part, counted more than 3,000 shots. It launched Operation Iron Sabers and carried out airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave, saying it had destroyed several buildings presented as Hamas “command centers”.
Doctors Without Borders said a strike hit a hospital in the enclave, causing several deaths. The UN has identified 20,000 displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Benjamin Netanyahu announced the suspension of deliveries of electricity, food and goods from Israel to this Palestinian territory subject to a strict Israeli blockade since Hamas took control there in 2007.
The conflict is causing disruptions at Tel Aviv airport and schools will remain closed on Sunday, the start of the week in Israel. This outbreak of violence has been condemned by many governments. US President Joe Biden assured Israel of his “unwavering support” on Saturday. The UN announced that it had convened an emergency meeting of the Security Council on the Middle East on Sunday evening. Iran, for its part, applauded the offensive. “We support this proud operation,” announced Revolutionary Guards General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, quoted by the ISNA agency.