Without warning, on Saturday, Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers attacked Israel by air, land and sea. Millions of Israelis in the country’s south awoke to the searing sound of incoming rockets and the inevitable thud of impact. In an unprecedented escalation, armed Hamas fighters blew up parts of Israel’s highly fortified separation fence and strode into Israeli communities along the Gaza frontier, terrorizing residents and trading fire with Israeli soldiers. (Photo | AP)
Israeli soldiers battled Hamas fighters in the streets of Israel’s south on Sunday and exchanged strikes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group in the north, while Israel’s retaliation strikes leveled buildings in Gaza. (Photo | AP)
Rescue Service Zaka, an Israeli group, said at least 200 people died in southern Israel and an additional 1,100 people were wounded. (Photo | AP)
People chant anti-Israel slogans while waving Palestinian flags during a rally celebrating the attacks that the militant Hamas group carried out against Israel, in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo | AP)
Hamas fighters, backed by a volley of thousands of rockets, broke through barricades around Gaza early Saturday to rampage through nearby communities in Israel. They took captives back into the coastal enclave, including women, children and the elderly. (Photo | AP)
Israel’s retaliation strikes leveled buildings in Gaza and its prime minister said the country was at war. At least 250 people were killed in Gaza and civilians paid a staggering cost for the violence on both sides. (Photo | AP)
Police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The rockets were fired as Hamas announced a new operation against Israel. (Photo | AP)
Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers brought widespread destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns. The situation is potentially more volatile now, with Israel’s far-right government stung by the security breach and Palestinians in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza. (Photo | AP)
The flare-up on Israel’s northern border also threatened to draw into the battle Hezbollah, a fierce enemy of Israel’s which is backed by Iran and estimated to have tens of thousands of rockets at its disposal. Hezbollah struck Israeli positions in a disputed area along the border with Syria’s Golan Heights, and Israel’s military responded with armed drone strikes on Hezbollah targets in a disputed area where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet. (Photo | AP)
Israel struck 426 targets in Gaza, its military said, flattening residential buildings in giant explosions. That included a 14-story tower that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israeli forces fired a warning just before. (Photo | AP)
Palestinian kids take religious books out of a mosque destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. (Photo | AP)
Palestinians walk away from the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, Israel, near the fence with the Gaza strip. (Photo | AP)
