Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented assault on Israel
News: Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented assault on Israel from the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023 killing more than 1,400 people and taking 230 hostages.
Since the attack Israel has been carrying out strikes in Gaza. The Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry says more than 8,000 people have been killed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel had entered the second stage of the war with Hamas, saying ground forces had gone into what he called “that stronghold of evil” – describing Gaza – to “dismantle” Hamas and bring hostages home.
“This will be a long and difficult war,” Mr Netanyahu said.
On Friday night, Israel stepped its bombardment of Gaza, while tanks and troops expanded their operations inside the territory.
An Israeli military spokesman said its forces were “operating powerfully on all dimensions in order achieve the goals of the war”.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant declared on Saturday: “The directives to the forces are clear: the operation will continue until further notice.”
Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it was ready to confront the “aggression with full force”.
Throughout Friday night, huge explosions lit up the sky above Gaza. At the same time, Palestinian mobile phone and internet networks went down, cutting off communications both inside the Strip and with the outside world. The blackout made it difficult for ambulances to reach the injured.
The BBC’s Rushdi Abu Alouf, who is in the southern city of Khan Younis, described a scene of “total chaos” on the ground on Saturday, with panic among the hundreds of thousands of displaced people sheltering there after being told by Israel to leave their homes in the north.
He said the Israeli strikes had been the most intense in the north, west and east of the Strip. One radio station’s reporter in the north said the bombardment there was “like an earthquake”.
The Indonesian Hospital in the northern town of Bait Lahia was reportedly struck, while people in Gaza City said strikes targeted several roads near Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in the territory.
The Israeli military has massed tens of thousands of soldiers along the territory’s perimeter fence, along with tanks and artillery. It has activated some 300,000 reservists, alongside its standing force of 160,000.
Hamas is thought to have about 25,000 people in its military wing. It also has a vast labyrinth of underground tunnels across Gaza, which it has previously claimed stretch 500km (310 miles).
The UN’s Secretary General António Guterres has repeated a call for an immediate ceasefire to facilitate the delivery of aid.
“I was encouraged in the last days by what seemed to be a growing consensus in the international community… for the need of at least a humanitarian pause in the fighting,” he said on Sunday.
The West Bank and Gaza, which are known as the Palestinian territories, as well as East Jerusalem and Israel all formed part of a land known as Palestine from Roman times until the mid-20th Century.
These were also the lands of Jewish kingdoms in the Bible, and are seen by many Jews as their ancient homeland.
Israel was declared a state in 1948, though the land is still referred to as Palestine by those who do not recognise Israel’s right to exist.
Palestinians also use the name Palestine as an umbrella term for the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian president is Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen. He is based in the West Bank, which is under Israeli occupation.
He has been the leader of the Palestinian Authority since 2005, and represents the Fatah political party, a bitter rival of Hamas.
