Fighting continued into the evening on Saturday in one of the broadest invasions of Israeli territory in 50 years, as Palestinian militants from Gaza fired another round of rockets at Israel’s central heartland, including Tel Aviv, and Israel worked to clear militants from Israeli towns and retaliated with huge strikes on Gazan cities.
It followed an enormous and coordinated early-morning assault on southern Israel, as the militants infiltrated 22 Israeli towns and army bases, kidnapped Israeli civilians and soldiers, and fired thousands of rockets toward cities as far away as Jerusalem.
Panic and disbelief rippled throughout Israel. Many people huddled inside their homes while hearing sirens, explosions and gunshots outside. Gruesome, graphic images flooded social media and spread throughout the world.
By early evening, at least 250 Israelis had been reported dead and more than 1,400 wounded, Israeli officials said, while at least 234 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,600 wounded in either gun battles or airstrikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said.
In an assault without recent precedent in its complexity and scale, the militants crossed into Israel by land, sea and air, according to the Israeli military, leading to some of the first pitched battles between large groups of Israeli and Arab forces on Israeli soil in decades. As of early evening there were two main battles taking place near the towns of Ofakim and Beeri, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said.
“We will win this war, but the price is unbearable,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in an address Saturday night, warning of a protracted military campaign and “challenging days” ahead. He added, “We will turn all the places that Hamas hides in and operates from into rubble.”
In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes filled cities with plumes of dark smoke, as morgues overran with the returning bodies of fighters. People frantically stocked up on food, and large parts of the enclave were plunged into darkness with limited electricity.
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President Biden vowed from the White House on Saturday that the United States would “not ever fail to have their back,” referring to Israel. The attacks also drew condemnation from several other Western powers, with Hamas singled out for criticism.
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The poor coastal enclave of Gaza has been under blockade by Israel and neighboring Egypt for 16 years. Muhammad Deif, the leader of Hamas’s military wing, said in a recorded message that the group had decided to launch an “operation” so that “the enemy will understand that the time of their rampaging without accountability has ended.”
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The military wing of Hamas, Al Qassam Brigades, described Saturday’s surprise assault on Israel as an operation against the Israeli blockade and “in defense of the Aqsa Mosque,” invoking a dispute around a site that is sacred to both Muslims and Jews and that is among the most deeply contested in the holy land.
Aaron Boxerman, Michael D. Shear and Raja Abdulrahim contributed reporting. (New York Times)
