A series of coordinated attacks, led by the
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
Islamist militant group
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
, from the
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
into
bordering areas in
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, commenced on 7 October 2023, a
Sabbath
In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...
day and date of several
Jewish holidays
Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' ( he, ימים טובים, , Good Days, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed in Judaism and by JewsThis article focuses on practices of mainstre ...
. Hamas meticulously planned for a massacre of Israeli civilians with the goal of provoking Israel to invade Gaza.
The attacks initiated the
2023 Israel–Hamas war
}
The ongoing armed conflict between Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups and Israel military forces began on 7 October 2023, 50 years after the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Hamas's coordinated surprise offensive, codenamed "Al-Aqsa Fl ...
, almost exactly 50 years after the
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...
began on 6 October 1973. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups named the attacks Operation Al-Aqsa Flood (or Deluge; ),
[From the ]United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
:
*
*
* while they are referred to in Israel as Black Saturday (), or the Simchat Torah Massacre (), and internationally as the 7 October attack.
The attacks began in the early morning with
a rocket barrage of at least 3,000 rockets launched against Israel and vehicle-transported and
powered paraglider
Powered paragliding, also known as paramotoring or PPG, is a form of ultralight aviation where the pilot wears a back-pack motor (a paramotor) which provides enough thrust to take off using a paraglider. It can be launched in still air, and ...
incursions into its territory.
Hamas fighters breached the
Gaza–Israel barrier
The Gaza–Israel barrier is a border barrier located on the Israeli side of the Gaza–Israel border. The Erez Crossing, in the north of the Gaza Strip, is the only crossing point for people and goods coming from Israel into Gaza; there exists ...
, targeting civilians for killing in neighboring Israeli communities and attacking Israeli
military bases
A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...
. In a single day, 859 Israeli civilians
and at least 345 Israeli soldiers and policemen
were killed in nearby towns,
kibbutzim
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming ha ...
, military bases and at a
music festival
A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...
near
Re'im
Re'im ( he, רֵעִים, lit. ''Friends'') is a secular kibbutz in southern Israel, and one of the Gaza Strip, Gaza vicinity villages. Located at the confluence of Besor, Besor Stream and Nahal Gerar, Gerar Stream in the north-western Negev deser ...
.
Around 200 Israeli civilians and soldiers were
taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip, of which the number of kidnapped children is about 30.
At least 44 nations (mostly Western) denounced the attack as
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
, while Arab and Muslim countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Iran and Iraq blamed the
Israeli occupation
Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the term is currently applied to the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, it has also been used to refer to a ...
of the
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely: the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. The I ...
as the root cause of the attack.
The day is considered the bloodiest in
Israel's history and the deadliest for
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
since
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
.
Background
Israel has occupied the
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely: the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. The I ...
, including the Gaza Strip, since the
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...
in 1967. According to some scholars,
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
's objective is the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders,
[Sources that believe that Hamas has accepted the 1967 borders:
*
*
*
*
*
*
] while others state that
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
had repeatedly
called for the destruction of the state of Israel. The
1988 founding charter mandated the killing of Jews, Hamas replaced it with a new charter in 2017 that removed antisemitic language and said Hamas's struggle was with Zionists not Jews. Prior to the attack, Saudi Arabia warned Israel of an "explosion" as a result of the continued occupation,
Egypt had warned of a catastrophe unless there was political progress,
and similar warnings were given by Palestinian Authority officials.
Less than two months before the attacks,
King Abdullah II of Jordan
Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein ( ar, عبدالله الثاني بن الحسين , translit=ʿAbd Allāh aṯ-ṯānī ibn al-Ḥusayn; born 30 January 1962) is King of Jordan, having ascended the throne on 7 February 1999. He is a member of t ...
lamented that Palestinians have "no civil rights; no freedom of mobility".
Events leading to the attack
Over the course of 2023, before the attack, 247 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces, while 39 Israelis were killed by Palestinians.
Increases in settler attacks had displaced hundreds of Palestinians, and there were
clashes around the
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Al-Aqsa Mosque (, ), also known as Jami' Al-Aqsa () or as the Qibli Mosque ( ar, المصلى القبلي, translit=al-Muṣallā al-Qiblī, label=none), and also is a congregational mosque located in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is situate ...
, a contested holy site in Jerusalem.
Tensions between Israel and Hamas rose in September 2023, and the ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' described the two "on the brink of war".
On 13 September, five Palestinians were killed at the border. Israel stated that it found explosives hidden in a shipment and halted all exports from Gaza;
Hamas denied this.
Reuters quoted Palestinians who said that the several day ban impacted thousands of families.
In response to the ban, Hamas put its forces on high alert, and conducted military exercises with other groups, including openly practicing storming Israeli settlements.
Hamas also allowed Palestinians to resume protests at the
Israel-Gaza barrier.
On 29 September,
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
, the UN, and Egypt mediated an agreement between Israel and Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip to reopen closed crossing points and deescalate tensions; the total number of Gazans with work permits in Israel stood at 17,000.
Egypt said it warned Israel days before the attack, "an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big."
Israel denied receiving such a warning, though
Michael McCaul
Michael Thomas McCaul Sr. (born January 14, 1962) is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2005. A member of the Republican Party, he chaired the House Committee on Homeland Security during the 113th ...
, Chairman of the
US House Foreign Relations Committee, said warnings were made three days before the attack.
Hamas preparations
Bedouin clans built early smuggling tunnels on the Egypt-Gaza border in 1981. In 2001, Hamas began a vast underground network initially for smuggling, later serving multiple functions. The tunnels aimed to shift battles underground. In 2014, Hamas employed 900 for tunnel construction, each taking three months and costing an average of $100,000. Funding came from commercial schemes via Gaza's mosques, with contributions from Iran and North Korea.
Gaza's tunnel network, known euphemistically as the "
Gaza metro", serves Hamas for storage, movement, and command. Hamas used hardwired phone lines within the tunnels for covert communication over two years, evading Israeli intelligence. This allowed a successful surprise attack on Israel, with specific plans disclosed shortly before the operation, catching intelligence agencies off guard.
In the months preceding the attack, Hamas had publicly released videos of its militants had preparing to attack Israel. A video released in December 2022 showed Hamas training to take hostages, while another video showed Hamas practicing paragliding. On 12 September, Hamas posted a video of its fighters training to blast through the border. The IDF would later state, after the attack, that Hamas had extensively studied the military bases and settlements near the border.
''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' has accused Iran of being behind the attack, while this has been denied by US officials,
as well as Iran.
Timeline
Rocket barrages and drone strikes
![A rocket hit a vehicle in Rishon Lezion](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/A_rocket_hit_a_vehicle_in_Rishon_Lezion.jpg)
At around 6:30 a.m.
Israel Summer Time
Israel Summer Time ( he, שעון קיץ ' "Summer Clock"), also in English, Israel Daylight Time (IDT) is the practice in State of Israel, Israel by which clocks are advanced by one hour, beginning on the Friday before the last Sunday of March ...
(UTC+3) on Saturday 7 October 2023,
Mohammed Deif
Mohammed Deif ( ar, محمّد ضيف ; born 1965 in Khan Younis), born Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, is a Palestinian chief of staff and supreme military commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. He has been Isra ...
announced the start of the operation, stating that it had fired over 5,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel within a span of 20 minutes. Israeli sources reported that at least 3,000 projectiles had been launched from Gaza. At least five people were killed by the rocket attacks.
Explosions were reported in areas surrounding the Strip and in cities in the
Sharon Plain
The Sharon plain ( ''HaSharon Arabic: سهل شارون Sahel Sharon'') is the central section of the Israeli coastal plain. The plain lies between the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the Samarian Hills, to the east. It stretches from Nahal ...
including
Gedera
Gedera, or less commonly known as Gdera ( he, גְּדֵרָה), is a town in the southern part of the Shfela region in the Central District of Israel founded in 1884. It is south of Rehovot.
In , it had a population of .
History
Gedera ...
,
Herzliyya
Herzliya ( ; he, הֶרְצְלִיָּה ; ar, هرتسليا, Hirtsiliyā) is an affluent city in the central coast of Israel, at the northern part of the Tel Aviv District, known for its robust start-up and entrepreneurial culture. In it h ...
,
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
, and
Ashkelon
Ashkelon or Ashqelon (; Hebrew: , , ; Philistine: ), also known as Ascalon (; Ancient Greek: , ; Arabic: , ), is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with ...
.
Air raid sirens were also activated in
Beer Sheva,
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
,
Rehovot
Rehovot ( he, רְחוֹבוֹת ''Rəḥōvōt'', ar, رحوڤوت ''Reḥūfūt'') is a city in the Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of .
Etymology
Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movement, ...
,
Rishon Lezion
Rishon LeZion ( he, רִאשׁוֹן לְצִיּוֹן , ''lit.'' First to Zion, Arabic: راشون لتسيون) is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan ar ...
, and
Palmachim Airbase
The Palmachim Airbase ( he, בָּסִיס חֵיל-הַאֲוִויר פַּלְמַחִים) is an Israeli military facility and spaceport located near the cities of Rishon LeZion and Yavne on the Mediterranean coast. It is named after nearb ...
.
Hamas issued a call to arms, with senior military commander
Mohammad Deif
Mohammed Deif ( ar, محمّد ضيف ; born 1965 in Khan Younis), born Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, is a Palestinian chief of staff and supreme military commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. He has been Isra ...
calling on "Muslims everywhere to launch an attack".
Palestinian militants also opened fire on Israeli boats off the Gaza Strip, while clashes broke out between Palestinians and the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
in the eastern section of the
Gaza perimeter fence.
In the evening Hamas launched another barrage of about 150 rockets towards Israel, with explosions being reported in
Yavne
Yavne ( he, יַבְנֶה) or Yavneh is a city in the Central District of Israel. In many English translations of the Bible, it is known as Jabneh . During Greco-Roman times, it was known as Jamnia ( grc, Ἰαμνία ''Iamníā''; la, Iamnia) ...
,
Givatayim
Givatayim ( he, גִּבְעָתַיִים, lit. "two hills") is a city in Israel east of Tel Aviv. It is part of the metropolitan area known as Gush Dan. Givatayim was established in 1922 by pioneers of the Second Aliyah. In it had a population o ...
,
Bat Yam
Bat Yam ( he, בַּת יָם or ) is a city located on Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast, on the Central Coastal Plain just south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area and the Tel Aviv District. In 2020, it had a population ...
,
Beit Dagan
Beit Dagan ( he, בֵּית דָּגָן, ''lit.'' "House of Grain") is a town and local council in the Central District of Israel. it had a population of in . It was awarded local council status in 1958.
History
During the Ottoman period, t ...
, Tel Aviv, and Rishon Lezion.
Incursions into Southern Israel
Simultaneously, around 2,900 Palestinian militants infiltrated Israel from Gaza using trucks,
pickup truck
A pickup truck or pickup is a light-duty truck that has an enclosed cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (this cargo bed back end sometimes consists of a tailgate and removable covering) ...
s, motorcycles, bulldozers, speedboats and
powered paraglider
Powered paragliding, also known as paramotoring or PPG, is a form of ultralight aviation where the pilot wears a back-pack motor (a paramotor) which provides enough thrust to take off using a paraglider. It can be launched in still air, and ...
s.
Images and videos appeared to show heavily armed and masked militants dressed in black fatigues riding pickup trucks
and opening fire in
Sderot
Sderot ( he, שְׂדֵרוֹת, , lit. ''Boulevards'', ar, سديروت) is a western Negev city and former development town in the Southern District of Israel. In it had a population of .
Sderot is located less than a mile from Gaza (the c ...
, killing dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers and setting homes on fire.
Other videos appeared to show Israelis taken prisoner and a burning Israeli tank,
as well as militants driving Israeli military vehicles.
Israeli first responders reportedly recovered documents from the bodies of killed militants, with instructions to attack
civilian
Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...
populations, including elementary schools and a youth center, to "kill as many people as possible", and to take
hostage
A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...
s for use in future negotiations.
Some of the militants wore
body camera
A body camera, bodycam, body worn video (BWV), body-worn camera, or wearable camera is a wearable audio, video, or photographic recording system.
Body cameras have a range of uses and designs, of which the best-known use is as a part of poli ...
s to record the acts, presumably for propaganda purposes. According to reports, during the attack terrorists used
Captagon - a stimulant produced in Syria and used throughout the Middle East.
Initial reports
The morning of the attack, an Israeli military spokesman stated that the militants from Gaza had entered Israel through at least seven locations
and invaded four small rural Israeli communities, the border city of Sderot, and two military bases from both land and sea.
Israeli media reported that seven communities came under Hamas control, including
Nahal Oz, Kfar Aza,
Magen, Be'eri, and
Sufa.
The
Erez Crossing was reported to have come under Hamas control, enabling the militants to enter Israel from Gaza.
Israeli Police Commissioner
Kobi Shabtai
Yaakov ‘Kobi’ Shabtai (Hebrew: יעקב (קובי) שבתאי) (born November 11, 1964) is an Israeli police officer, and the 19th Commissioner of Israel Police since January 17, 2021. Prior to that, he served as Commander of the Border Pol ...
said that there were 21 active high-confrontation locations in southern Israel.
At 10:00 am, less than five hours after the attacks began, fighting was reported at
Re'im
Re'im ( he, רֵעִים, lit. ''Friends'') is a secular kibbutz in southern Israel, and one of the Gaza Strip, Gaza vicinity villages. Located at the confluence of Besor, Besor Stream and Nahal Gerar, Gerar Stream in the north-western Negev deser ...
military base, headquarters of the
Gaza Division
The Israel Defense Forces Gaza Division (Territorial), is subordinate to the Southern Regional Command. Its area of operation is the Gaza Strip and the area surrounding it. The division's commander is Brigadier-General Eliezer Toledano.
The G ...
.
It was later reported that Hamas took control of the base and had taken several Israeli soldiers captive
before the IDF regained control later in the day.
The base was reportedly the location of IDF drone and surveillance operations. Hamas reportedly posted video of dead Israeli soldiers it had killed at the base. The police station of Sderot was reported to have come under Hamas control, with militants killing 30 Israelis, including policemen and civilians.
Further attacks on 7 October
Starting at 6.30 a.m. on the same morning, a massacre unfolded at an outdoor music festival near
Re'im
Re'im ( he, רֵעִים, lit. ''Friends'') is a secular kibbutz in southern Israel, and one of the Gaza Strip, Gaza vicinity villages. Located at the confluence of Besor, Besor Stream and Nahal Gerar, Gerar Stream in the north-western Negev deser ...
, resulting in at least 360 dead, and many others missing. Witnesses recounted militants on motorcycles opening fire on fleeing participants, who were already dispersing due to rocket fire that had wounded some attendees; some were also taken hostage.
Militants killed civilians at
Nir Oz,
Be'eri
Be'eri ( he, בְּאֵרִי) is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the north-western Negev desert near the border with the Gaza Strip, it falls under the jurisdiction of Eshkol Regional Council. In it had a population of .
History
Kib ...
, and
Netiv HaAsara, where they took hostages and set fire to homes,
as well as in
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
im around the Gaza Strip.
200 civilians were killed in the
Kfar Aza massacre, 108 in the
Be'eri massacre
On 7 October 2023, in the opening attacks of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Hamas militants carried out a massacre at Be'eri, an Israeli kibbutz near the Gaza Strip.
Around 70 Hamas militants of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, al-Qas ...
, and 15 people in the
Netiv HaAsara massacre. Sixteen or seventeen foreign Thai and Nepalese employees were killed by militants during the
Kibbutz Alumim massacre.
Nir Am
Nir Am ( he, נִירְעָם, ניר עם, lit. ''Nation Meadow'') is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located near Sderot and covering 20,000 dunams, it falls under the jurisdiction of Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. In it had a population of .
...
was attacked but no residents were harmed.
Inbal Rabin-Lieberman, the 25-year-old security coordinator, alongside her uncle Ami, led a guard detail that killed multiple militants attempting to infiltrate a nearby chicken farm. They successfully deterred the rest of the invading militants from entering the community.
Other Hamas militants carried out an amphibious
landing in Zikim.
Palestinian sources claim that the local Israeli army base was stormed. The IDF said it had killed two attackers on the beach and destroyed four vessels, including two rubber boats. A military base outside
Nahal Oz was also taken by the militants, leaving at least two Israeli soldiers dead and at least six others captured.
The moshav of
Yakhini
Yakhini ( he, יָכִינִי) is an Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox moshav in southern Israel. Located in the northern Negev desert near the town of Sderot, it falls under the jurisdiction of Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. In it had a population o ...
was attacked by a squad of Hamas militants that arrived in a van.
There were seven casualties in the moshav,
including a border police officer.
An IDF major in the
Maglan
Maglan (Hebrew: מגלן. Also known as Unit 212 or Sayeret Maglan) is an Israeli sayeret (''reconnaissance'') unit, which specializes in operating behind enemy lines and deep in enemy territory using advanced technologies and weaponry. Though ...
unit was also injured. The community leader's was on holiday in Thailand at the time, and directed the response by the moshav's eighteen person protection team remotely.
YAMAM
The Yamam ( he, ימ"מ, an acronym for ''Centralized Special Unit'' , ''Yeḥida Merkazit Meyuḥedet''), also called in Hebrew and Israel's National Counter Terror Unit (I.N.C.T.U.) in English, is Israel's national counter-terrorism unit, ...
and
Sayeret Matkal
General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (formerly Unit 269 or Unit 262), more commonly known as Sayeret Matkal ( he, סיירת מטכ״ל) is the special reconnaissance unit (''sayeret'') of Israel's General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, General ...
IDF units eventually arrived and killed all of the attackers.
Hostages taken
In Be'eri, up to 50 people were taken hostage; after an 18-hour stand-off between militants and IDF forces, they were freed.
Hostages were also reported to have been taken in
Ofakim
Ofakim ( he, אֳפָקִים ''ʾŎfāqīm'', or אוֹפָקִים ''ʾŌfāqīm'', ''lit.'' "horizons") is a city in the Southern District of Israel, 20 kilometers (12.4 mi) west of Beersheba. It achieved municipal status in 1955. I ...
, where policemen led by
Chief Superintendent
Chief superintendent is a senior rank in police forces, especially in those organised on the United Kingdom, British model.
Rank insignia of chief superintendent
File:Sa-police-chief-superintendent.png, South Australia Police
File:RCMP Chief Su ...
Jayar Davidov engaged Palestinian militants in a shootout;
when?''.html" ;"title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers#Chronological items">when?''">Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers#Chronological items">when?''/sup> Davidov and three of his men were killed, and two Israeli hostages were later rescued by the IDF in the suburb of Urim. There were reports of militants killing or kidnapping family pet
A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence, ...
s.
Hamas took many hostages back to Gaza. On 16 October, it said it held 250 hostages. Hamas said it took "prisoners" to force Israel to release its Palestinian prisoners.
According to Ariel Merari, "he raiders
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
were ordered to kidnap as many eopleas possible... ndthey intentionally kidnapped a populace that is sensitive from the aspect of Israeli public opinion
Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them.
Etymology
The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...
". Merari doubts that Hamas will agree to releasing all of the hostages in "one go" regardless of how many of its prisoners are released, since the hostages are its only guarantee against complete destruction at the hands of Israel. He instead believes that it will try to force a ceasefire and protract the release for weeks and even months, until an Israeli offensive is no longer seen as viable.
Participating and supporting organizations
In addition to Hamas, several Palestinian militant groups voiced their support for the operation. The National Resistance Brigades, the armed wing of the secular-socialist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP; ar, الجبهة الديموقراطية لتحرير فلسطين, ''al-Jabha al-Dīmūqrāṭiyya li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn'') is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organi ...
(DFLP) confirmed their participation in the operation through their military spokesman Abu Khaled, saying it had lost three fighters in combat with the IDF. The PFLP
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( ar, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين, translit=al-Jabhah al-Sha`biyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn, PFLP) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary so ...
, another Palestinian socialist militant group, and the Lions' Den group voiced their support for the operation and declared maximum alertness and general mobilization amongst their troops, and the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades (armed wing of the PFLP) published videos of it storming Israeli watchtowers.
Israeli counter-incursion
After the initial breach of the Gaza perimeter by Palestinian militants, it took hours for the Israeli military to respond by sending troops to counter-attack.
The first helicopters sent to support the military were launched from the north of Israel, and arrived at the Gaza Strip an hour after fighting began. However, they immediately encountered difficulty in determining which outposts and settlements were occupied, and distinguishing between Palestinian militants and the soldiers and civilians on the ground.[ The helicopter crews initially poured down fire at a tremendous rate, and in 4 hours, about 300 targets were attacked. Later on the crews began to slow down the attacks and carefully select targets.][
According to '']Haaretz
''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...
s journalist Josh Breiner, a police source said that a police investigation indicated an IDF helicopter which had fired on Hamas militants "apparently also hit some festival participants" in Re'im music festival massacre. The Israeli police denied the Haaretz report.
Subsequent investigation has determined that militants had been instructed not to run so that the air force would think they were Israelis.[ This deception worked for some time, but pilots began to realize the problem and ignore their restrictions. By around 9:00 a.m., amid the chaos and confusion, some helicopters started laying down fire without prior authorization.][
The attack appeared to have been a complete surprise to the Israelis.] Prime Minister Netanyahu convened an emergency gathering of security authorities, and the IDF launched Operation Swords of Iron in the Gaza Strip. In a televised broadcast, Netanyahu said, "We are at war". He threatened to "turn all the places where Hamas is organized and hiding into cities of ruins", called Gaza "the city of evil", and urged its residents to leave. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
Yoav Gallant (; born 8 November 1958) is an Israeli politician and former military officer. A member of the Knesset for Likud, he has served as Ministry of Defense (Israel), Minister of Defense since 2022. He is a former commander of the Southe ...
conducted security assessments at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv. Overnight, Israel's Security Cabinet voted to act to bring about the "destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad". The Israel Electric Corporation
Israel Electric Corporation ( he, חברת החשמל לישראל, abbreviation: IEC) is the largest supplier of electrical power in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The IEC builds, maintains, and operates power generation stations, sub- ...
, which supplies 80% of the Gaza Strip's electricity, cut off power to the area. This reduced Gaza's power supply from 120 MW to 20 MW, provided by power plants paid for by the Palestinian Authority.
The IDF declared a "state of readiness for war", mobilized tens of thousands of army reservist
A reservist is a person who is a member of a military reserve force. They are otherwise civilians, and in peacetime have careers outside the military. Reservists usually go for training on an annual basis to refresh their skills. This person is ...
s, and declared a state of emergency for areas within of Gaza. The Yamam
The Yamam ( he, ימ"מ, an acronym for ''Centralized Special Unit'' , ''Yeḥida Merkazit Meyuḥedet''), also called in Hebrew and Israel's National Counter Terror Unit (I.N.C.T.U.) in English, is Israel's national counter-terrorism unit, ...
counterterrorism unit was deployed, along with four new divisions, augmenting 31 existing battalions. Reservists were reported deployed in Gaza, in the West Bank, and along borders with Lebanon and Syria.
Residents near Gaza were asked to stay inside, while civilians in southern and central Israel were "required to stay next to shelters". The southern region of Israel was closed to civilian movement, and roads were closed around Gaza and Tel Aviv. While Ben Gurion Airport and Ramon Airport
Ramon Airport ( he, נמל התעופה רמון, Arabic: مطار رامون) , named after Ilan and Asaf Ramon and unofficially also known as Eilat-Ramon Airport, is an international airport located in the Timna Valley in southern Israel. Ram ...
remained operational, multiple airlines cancelled flights to and from Israel. Israel Railways
Israel Railways Ltd. , dba Israel Railways ( he, רַכֶּבֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Rakevet Yisra'el''), is the state-owned principal railway company responsible for all inter-city, commuter, and freight rail transport in Israel. Isr ...
suspended service in parts of the country and replaced some routes with temporary bus routes, while cruise ship
Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...
s removed the ports of Ashdod
Ashdod ( he, ''ʾašdōḏ''; ar, أسدود or إسدود ''ʾisdūd'' or '' ʾasdūd'' ; Philistine: 𐤀𐤔𐤃𐤃 *''ʾašdūd'') is the sixth-largest city in Israel. Located in the country's Southern District, it lies on the Mediterran ...
and Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
from their itineraries.
Casualties
The attack is considered the bloodiest day in Israel's history and the deadliest for Jews since The Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
.
Around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed, which included 859 civilians, at least 278 soldiers, 57 policemen and 10 Shin Bet members. The attack left over 3,400 wounded, and 247 soldiers and civilians taken hostage. On 19 October 2023, Israeli officials reported an additional 100 to 200 missing. Israeli casualties include about 70 Arab Israelis, predominantly from Negev Bedouin
The Negev Bedouin ( ar, بدو النقب, ''Badū an-Naqab''; he, הבדואים בנגב, ''HaBedu'im BaNegev'') are traditionally pastoral nomadic Arab people, Arab tribes (Bedouin), who until the later part of the 19th century would wande ...
communities. On 7 October, over 100 civilians were killed in the Be'eri massacre
On 7 October 2023, in the opening attacks of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Hamas militants carried out a massacre at Be'eri, an Israeli kibbutz near the Gaza Strip.
Around 70 Hamas militants of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, al-Qas ...
, including women
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...
and children; and over 270 attendees were killed at a music festival in Re'im.[ As of 10 October, over 100 people had been reported killed in the Kfar Aza massacre, with the total death toll unknown.] Nine people were fatally shot at a bus shelter in Sderot. At least four people were reported killed in Kuseife
Kuseife ( ar, كسيفة) or Kseifa ( he, כְּסֵיפָה) is a Bedouin town ( local council) in the Southern District of Israel. Kuseife was founded in 1982 as part of a government project to settle Bedouins in permanent settlements. In 1996 ...
. At least 400 wounded were treated in Ashkelon, while 280 others were reported in Beer Sheva, 60 of which were in a serious condition. In the north, injuries from rocket attacks were reported in Tel Aviv.
Former Hapoel Tel Aviv F.C.
Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club ( he, מועדון כדורגל הפועל תל אביב , ''Moadon Kaduregel Hapoel Tel Aviv)'' is an Israeli football club based in Tel Aviv that competes in the Israeli Premier League. The club's traditional hom ...
striker Lior Asulin
Lior Asulin ( he, ליאור אסולין; born 6 October 1980) is a male Israeli footballer.
Playing career
Maccabi Herzliya and Ariel Shaiman
A native of Ra'anana, Israel he grew up in the youth system of Maccabi Herzliya and it was the ...
was among those killed in the Re'im music festival massacre. The head of the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council
The Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית שער הנגב, ''Mo'atza Azorit Sha'ar HaNegev'', ''lit.'' Gate of the Negev Regional Council), is a regional council in the north-western Negev, in Israel's Southern District. T ...
, Ofir Libstein, was killed in an exchange of fire with the militants. The police commander of Rahat
Rahat ( ar, رهط, he, רַהַט) is a predominantly Bedouin city in the Southern District of Israel. In it had a population of . As such, it is the largest Bedouin city in the world, and the only one in Israel to have city status.
Rahat i ...
, Jayar Davidov, was also killed. The IDF confirmed that 247 of its soldiers had been killed. Among their confirmed dead were Colonel Yonatan Steinberg, the commander of the Nahal Brigade, who was killed near Kerem Shalom
Kerem Shalom ( he, כֶּרֶם שָׁלוֹם, ''lit.'' Vineyard of Peace) is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located on the Gaza Strip-Israel-Egypt border, it falls under the jurisdiction of Eshkol Regional Council. In it had a population of .
Hi ...
; Colonel Roi Levy, commander of the Multidimensional "Ghost" unit, who was killed near kibbutz Re'im; and Lieutenant Colonel Eli Ginsberg, commander of the LOTAR Counter-terrorism Unit School. The Druze
The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...
deputy commander of the 300th "Baram" Regional Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Alim Abdallah, was killed in action along with two other soldiers while responding to an infiltration from southern Lebanon on 9 October. Israeli peace activist Hayim Katsman was killed in Holit.
Peace activist Vivian Silver, originally thought to be taken hostage, was later confirmed to have been killed during the attack on Be'eri. Video journalist Yaniv Zohar was killed in Nahal Oz.
The great number and geographical spread of the victims made locating all of their remains difficult. Several weeks after the massacre, once conventional search techniques have been exhausted, the IDF approached the Israel Nature and Parks Authority
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority ( he, רשות הטבע והגנים ''Rashut Hateva Vehaganim''; ar, سلطة الطبيعة والحدائق) is an Israeli government organization that manages nature reserves and national parks in Israel, ...
for help in tracking
Tracking may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Tracking, in computer graphics, in match moving (insertion of graphics into footage)
* Tracking, composing music with music tracker software
* Eye tracking, measuring the position of t ...
the flight paths of vulture
A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...
s, which resulted in the discovery of at least five more bodies. The IDF also enlisted the aid of archaeologists
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
from the Israel Antiquities Authority
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, he, רשות העתיקות ; ar, داﺌرة الآثار, before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of ...
, to help recover remains that were so badly burned, they were indistinguishable from the surrounding rubble; the remains of at least ten victims have been recovered this way.
At least 247 Israelis were taken hostage by Hamas and transported to the Gaza Strip. On 8 October, Palestinian Islamic Jihad
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine ( ar, حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, ''Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn''), known in the West simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist par ...
said they were holding at least 30 captives. At least four people were reportedly taken from Kfar Aza. Videos from Gaza appeared to show captured people, with Gazan residents cheering trucks carrying dead bodies. Four captives were later reported to have been killed in Be'eri, while Hamas stated that an IDF airstrike on Gaza on 9 October killed four captives. ''Yedioth Ahronoth
''Yedioth Ahronoth'' ( he, יְדִיעוֹת אַחֲרוֹנוֹת, ; lit. ''Latest News'') is a national daily newspaper published in Tel Aviv, Israel. Founded in 1939 in British Mandatory Palestine, ''Yedioth Ahronoth'' is the largest paid n ...
'' photographer Roy Edan was reported missing and likely captured alongside his child in Kfar Aza. His wife was killed and two of their children were able to hide in a closet until rescued. Edan's body was identified ten days later as one of the casualties of the Kfar Aza massacre. American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin was one of the kidnapped. On 11 October, Hamas's Qassam Brigades released a video appearing to show the release of three hostages, namely an adult woman and two children, in an open area near a fence. Israel dismissed the video as "theatrics".
Identification of remains
According to Dr. Chen Kugel, head of the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute
L. Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine ( he, המכון הלאומי לרפואה משפטית ע"ש ל' גרינברג) also known as Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, is an Israeli forensic research laboratory located in the Abu Kabir n ...
, hundreds of bodies arrived at the institute at a state that was "beyond recognition". Pathologists were required to process, among others, bone fragments recovered from fires; a blood-soaked baby mattress; victims who were tied, then executed; and two victims who were tied, then incinerated alive.
With hundreds missing and bodies burnt beyond recognition, Israeli authorities assembled recovery teams from across society. This included archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, he, רשות העתיקות ; ar, داﺌرة الآثار, before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of ...
. The team used their specialized skills in excavating and identifying fragmentary ancient remains to sift through ash and rubble for bone fragments overlooked by other forensic teams.
The sheer number of casualties overwhelmed authorities. Bodies were brought chaotically to the Shura IDF base and Abu Kabir forensic institute. The different military, police, and civilian teams caused confusion. Archeologists systematically searched rooms, dividing them into grids and carefully extracting bone shards. At one house, the archeology team found a bloodstain under ash that they determined was the outline of a body, later identified through DNA analysis as Meni Godard .
On 10 November, Israel revised down its casualty count from 1,400 to 1,200 after concluding that many of the identified bodies were those of Hamas fighters.
Reactions
Israeli response
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...
and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
Yoav Gallant (; born 8 November 1958) is an Israeli politician and former military officer. A member of the Knesset for Likud, he has served as Ministry of Defense (Israel), Minister of Defense since 2022. He is a former commander of the Southe ...
conducted security assessments at Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
(IDF) headquarters in Tel Aviv. Gallant later approved the mobilisation of tens of thousands of army reservists and declared a state of emergency for areas within of the Gaza border. He also said that Hamas "made a grave mistake" in launching its attack and pledged that "Israel will win". The IDF declared a "state of readiness for war". It also said that the reservists were to be deployed not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank and along the borders with Lebanon and Syria. Residents in areas around the Gaza Strip were asked to stay inside, while civilians in southern and central Israel were "required to stay next to shelters". Roads around the Gaza Strip were closed by the IDF. The streets of Tel Aviv were also locked down.
Following the assault, Israel declared a heightened state of preparedness for potential conflict. The IDF declared a state of readiness for war, and Netanyahu convened an emergency gathering of security authorities. The IDF additionally reported their initiation of targeted actions in the Gaza Strip under what it called ''Operation Swords of Iron'' (or ''Iron Swords'') ( Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai
Yaakov ‘Kobi’ Shabtai (Hebrew: יעקב (קובי) שבתאי) (born November 11, 1964) is an Israeli police officer, and the 19th Commissioner of Israel Police since January 17, 2021. Prior to that, he served as Commander of the Border Pol ...
announced that a "state of war" existed, following what he called "a massive attack from the Gaza Strip". He also announced the closure of the entire southern region of Israel to "civilian movement" as well as the deployment of the Yamam
The Yamam ( he, ימ"מ, an acronym for ''Centralized Special Unit'' , ''Yeḥida Merkazit Meyuḥedet''), also called in Hebrew and Israel's National Counter Terror Unit (I.N.C.T.U.) in English, is Israel's national counter-terrorism unit, ...
counterterrorism unit to the area. The IDF's chief spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said four divisions were deployed to the area, augmenting 31 preexisting battalions.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog
Isaac "Bougie" Herzog ( he, יצחק "בוז׳י" הרצוג, Yitskhak "Buzhi" Hertsog; born 22 September 1960) is an Israeli politician who has been serving as the 11th president of Israel since 2021. He is the first president to be born in ...
said the country was facing "a very difficult moment", and offered strength and encouragement to the IDF, other security forces, rescue services, and residents who were under attack. In a televised broadcast, Netanyahu stated: "We are at war." He also said that the IDF would reinforce its border deployments to deter others from 'making the mistake of joining this war'. In a later address, he threatened to "turn Gaza into a deserted island", and urged its residents to "leave now".
On 7 October, Israel's Security Cabinet voted to undertake a series of actions to bring about the "destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad", according to a statement by the Prime Minister's Office. The Israel Electric Corporation
Israel Electric Corporation ( he, חברת החשמל לישראל, abbreviation: IEC) is the largest supplier of electrical power in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The IEC builds, maintains, and operates power generation stations, sub- ...
, which supplies up to 80% of the Gaza Strip's electricity, cut off power to the area. As a result, Gaza's power supply was reduced from 120 MW to only 20 MW, forcing it to rely on power plants paid for by the Palestinian Authority
The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine, .
Hamas response
Khaled Mashal
Khaled Mashal ( ar, خالد مشعل, Khālid Mashʿal, Levantine Arabic: , born 28 May 1956) is a former leader of the Palestinian organization Hamas.
After the founding of Hamas in 1987, Mashal became the leader of the Kuwaiti branch of th ...
lauded the "ingenious" Hamas attack, referring to it as legitimate resistance to Israeli occupation. He said "We know very well the consequences of our operation on Oct. 7", emphasizing that Palestinian lives must be sacrificed in the quest for liberation.
Khalil al-Hayya
Khalil al-Hayya (Arabic: خليل الحية) is a senior Hamas official who was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council on 25 January 2006 as a representative of Gaza City. He resided in the neighborhood of Shuja'iyya.
Khalil al-Hayya s ...
, a senior member of Hamas, said the action was necessary to "change the entire equation and not just have a clash... We succeeded in putting the Palestinian issue back on the table, and now no one in the region is experiencing calm." Taher El-Nounou, a Hamas media adviser, said that he " opesthat the state of war with Israel will become permanent on all the borders, and that the Arab world will stand with amas.
Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, stated on an interview, "we must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth. Because we have the determination...to fight." He emphasized the organization's willingness to "pay a price", concluding with a call for the elimination of Israel, stating, "we must remove that country because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nations". These comments came after an incident where Hamad abruptly left a BBC interview when asked about Hamas's killing of civilians in Israel on 7 October.
Palestinian Authority response
On the eve of the Hamas attack at the emergency meeting in Ramallah, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves against the terror of settlers and occupation troops. According to Palestinian government agency WAFA, the President Abbas also ordered the government and relevant authorities to immediately send all available resources to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip under an Israeli aggression.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has yet to condemn the October 7 massacre.
Palestinian public opinion
In a survey conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development
Birzeit University (BZU; ar, جامعة بيرزيت) is a public university in the West Bank, in the State of Palestine, registered by the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs as charitable organization. It is accredited by the Ministry of Hi ...
(AWRAD) on 14 November 2023, Palestinians showed overwhelming support for the attack. "Palestinians living in the West Bank overwhelmingly answered that they supported the attack to either an extreme or “somewhat” extent (83.1%)". AWRAD is a research, consulting and development firm based in Ramallah
Ramallah ( , ; ar, رام الله, , God's Height) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank that serves as the ''de facto'' administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusale ...
, Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians exhibited lesser consensus with only 63.6% “extremely” or to a “somewhat” extent supporting the attack. 14.4% answered they neither opposed or supported the attack, and 20.9% opposed the attack to some degree.
International
At least 44 nations, mostly Western, denounced Hamas and explicitly condemned its conduct as terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
, including a joint statement by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany. In contrast, Arab and Muslim countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Iran and Iraq have blamed Israel for the attack. The UAE, Bahrain, and China have all amended their initial declarations to expressly denounce the killing and abduction of Israeli civilians.
Over 680 legal experts and 128 human rights experts from Israel and around the world have signed an appeal for the immediate release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas, and for the end of the "vicious and inhumane capture, violence, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of women and girls, children and infants." According to the appeal, "the abductees are defined according to international law as victims of enforced disappearance... hich makes these actsblatant violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity."
Reports of atrocities
Torture and mutilation
Israeli forces in Kfar Aza
Kfar Aza ( he, כְּפַר עַזַּה, ''lit.'' Gaza Village) is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located between Netivot and Sderot around five kilometres east of Gaza, it falls under the jurisdiction of Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. In it ...
and Be'eri
Be'eri ( he, בְּאֵרִי) is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the north-western Negev desert near the border with the Gaza Strip, it falls under the jurisdiction of Eshkol Regional Council. In it had a population of .
History
Kib ...
reported that they found bodies of victims mutilated. One IDF commander told a reporter from i24 News that 40 babies had been killed, out of what one estimate described as at least 100 civilian victims.
According to Yossi Landau, regional head of the ZAKA
ZAKA ( he, זק"א, abbreviation for ''Zihuy Korbanot Ason'', , literally: "Disaster Victim Identification") is a series of voluntary community emergency response teams in Israel, each operating in a police district (two in the Central Distr ...
volunteer emergency response organization, tactics displayed were severe compared to past Hamas actions, with bodies showing signs of torture and extreme violence. At one kibbutz, first responders stated that of 280 bodies recovered, around 80% showed evidence of torture. Groups of children were reportedly found tied up and burned alive. At the music festival, there was said to be mass killing but less time for torture compared to the kibbutz. Approximately 70% of bodies were reported to have been shot in the back. Graeme Wood reported that the video footage retrieved from body camera
A body camera, bodycam, body worn video (BWV), body-worn camera, or wearable camera is a wearable audio, video, or photographic recording system.
Body cameras have a range of uses and designs, of which the best-known use is as a part of poli ...
s worn by the attackers showed several victims who "in the beginning of the footage... are alive, ndby the end they're dead. Sometimes, in fact frequently, after their death their bodies are still being desecrated." Other videos show attackers shooting at children, executing men in civilian clothing, throwing grenades into civilian shelters, and decapitations.
First response personnel recovering the bodies reported being extremely distressed by the sight of atrocities they witnessed. The remains of Hamas militants were also handled and collected respectfully, despite the psychological difficulty for the responders in doing so given their actions.
Israeli security agencies released videos that the ''Times of Israel'' described as "apparent interrogations" of Hamas attackers, in which the subjects said they were ordered to kill, behead, cut off limbs and rape. A former chief rabbi of the Israeli army, part of the team identifying bodies, said that there were many instances of rape and torture, and an Israeli reserve warrant officer said that forensic exams had discovered multiple cases of rape, though neither provided forensic evidence to support the claims. CNN has interviewed several Israelis who witnessed the aftermath of the attack, who reported visible signs of rape and excessive violence on the bodies of women and girls from several sites.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American government official and diplomat serving as the 71st United States secretary of state since January 26, 2021. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and ...
's described some of the evidence: "a young boy and girl, 6 and 8 years old, and their parents around the breakfast table. The father's eye gouged out in front of his kids. The mother's breast cut off, the girl's foot amputated, the boy's fingers cut off before they were executed"; and "a baby, an infant, riddled with bullets. Soldiers beheaded. Young people burned alive. I could go on, but it's simply depravity in the worst imaginable way."
A Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children established following the attack and the Association of Rape Crises Centers in Israel collected testimonies and evidence of rape and sexual violence.
Decapitations
In the aftermath of the initial Hamas assault, witnesses from the IDF and the first responder organisation ZAKA
ZAKA ( he, זק"א, abbreviation for ''Zihuy Korbanot Ason'', , literally: "Disaster Victim Identification") is a series of voluntary community emergency response teams in Israel, each operating in a police district (two in the Central Distr ...
reported seeing bodies of beheaded infants at the site of the Kfar Aza massacre. During Antony Blinken's visit to Israel, he stated that he was shown photos of the massacre by Hamas of Israeli civilians and soldiers, and that specifically he saw beheaded IDF soldiers. US President Biden separately said that he had seen photographic evidence of terrorists beheading children, The White House subsequently clarified that Biden was alluding to news reports on beheadings, which have not contained or referred to photographic evidence. NBC News stated that the claim was likely erroneous, and based on the conflation of two separate statements made by IDF soldiers. As of 12 October, CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
extensively reviewed online media content to verify Hamas-related atrocities but found no evidence to support claims of decapitated children.
A ZAKA volunteer reported on 14 October seeing bodies of children with severe injuries and burns. Some of the deceased children appeared to have been decapitated, although the exact circumstances were not clear. Chen Kugel, director of the Israeli National Center of Forensic Medicine, said: "we also have bodies coming in without heads, but we can't definitely say it was from beheadings. Heads can also be blown off due to explosive devices, missiles, and the like". On 24 October, Israeli authorities screened bodycam footage of Hamas atrocities for journalists, including "an attempt to decapitate someone who appeared to be still alive using a garden hoe", as well as a still image of a decapitated IDF soldier.
Sexual violence
Rape and sexual violence against Israeli women were reported during the Re'im music festival massacre. Reports in El País
''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA.
It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...
, ''Vice'', PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
, ''The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'', ''India Today
''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...
'', the ''Hindustan Times
''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia.
It was founded by Sunder Singh Lyall ...
'', '' Tablet'', Ynet
Ynet (stylized as ynet) is one of the major Israeli news and general-content websites, and is the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronot'' newspaper. However, most of Ynet's content is original work, published exclusively on the website and wri ...
, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) is an international news agency and wire service, founded in 1917, serving Jewish community newspapers and media around the world as well as non-Jewish press, with about 70 syndication clients listed on its web ...
were sourced to named and anonymous eye-witnesses present in Israel.
An 8 October report by ''The Times of Israel
''The Times of Israel'' is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman. '' referenced videos it said "have raised concerns of sexual assault against women". However, as of 11 October, Yuval Shany Yuval Shany is an Israel academic. He holds the Hersch Lauterpacht Chair in Public International Law at Hebrew University. An expert on humanitarian law and human rights, in 2018 Shany was elected Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Committe ...
wrote it was too soon to know whether there had been a pattern of sexual assault, as there had not yet been time to formally take testimonies from victims and witnesses. These reports of sexual violence were repeated by Israeli officials, US President Biden, UK security minister Tom Tugendhat
Thomas Georg John Tugendhat, (born 27 June 1973) is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as Minister of State for Security since September 2022. He previously served as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commi ...
, and several journalists or media outlets (e.g. Henrique Cymerman, Jake Tapper
Jacob Paul Tapper (born March 12, 1969) is an American journalist, author, and cartoonist. He is the lead Washington anchor for CNN, hosts the weekday television news show ''The Lead with Jake Tapper'', and co-hosts the Sunday morning public af ...
, Peter Hartcher
Peter Hartcher is an Australian journalist and the Political and International Editor of the ''Sydney Morning Herald''. He is also a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based foreign policy think tank.
Career
In 1981, while a stude ...
, and ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
).
On 11 October, Jewish-American news media organization ''The Forward
''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ' ...
'' said, "Biden, Netanyahu, celebrities and columnists have rushed to condemn rape. But the IDF does not yet have any evidence it happened". As of 13 October, FactCheck.org
FactCheck.org is a nonprofit website that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in Politics of the United States, U.S. politics by providing original research on misinformation and hoaxes. It is a project of the Annenberg Public Po ...
concluded "there are no publicly confirmed examples of sexual assault". An Arab-Israeli council member in the city of Lod told ''The New York Times'' that local Arab youth had seen "images of slaughter, kidnap and rape", which weakened their initial support for Hamas.
On 14 October, Israel's military forensic
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to Criminal law, criminal and Civil law (legal system), civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standard ...
teams attested that there were indications of torture and multiple rapes among the deceased. The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, a group representing the families of hostages taken by Hamas, told the International Committee of the Red Cross that some of the hostages had been victims of rape.
On 24 October, Israeli authorities screened footage of atrocities committed during Hamas's incursion to a small group of foreign journalists. In one clip a partially burnt female corpse was seen, with her dress pulled up to around her waist and underwear missing. An Israeli official said that authorities had evidence of rape. An NBC News report on 27 October stated "there are signs of rape" in some of the videos.
Immolation
On 20 October, the remains of victims from the Hamas attack and the analysis of the bodies by a team of Israeli and international forensic experts were shown to the media at Israel's National Center of Forensic Medicine. These included charred hands with marks indicating the victims' hands were bound behind their backs with metal wire before being burned alive. A large charred mass that when observed by CT scan show the remains of a parent and child who were bound together before being burned alive. Many of the victims had soot in their trachea, indicating that they were executed through immolation.
Denial of atrocities
Hamas denied it killed any civilians, including children in the attack. Hamas official announcement referring to the event, rejected the "falsehood of the fabricated allegations" promoted by some Western media outlets, which unprofessionally adopt the "Zionist narrative full of lies and slander against our Palestinian people and their resistance, the latest of which was the claim of killing children, beheading them, and targeting civilians".[ When asked about the Re'im music festival massacre, where 260 civilians were murdered, Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk replied that it was a "coincidence", and that the attackers may have thought these were soldiers "resting".
]
Seized supplies and documents
The IDF has reported seizing over 10,000 weapons following the attack. The arsenal included RPGs, mines, sniper rifles, drones, thermobaric
A thermobaric weapon, also called an aerosol bomb, a vacuum bomb or a fuel air explosive (FAE), is a type of explosive that uses oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion. The fuel–air explosive is one of the be ...
rockets, and other advanced weapons. According to Israeli sources, documents and maps seized from Hamas militants indicated that Hamas intended a coordinated month-long operation to invade and occupy Israeli towns, cities, and kibbutzim, including attacking Ashkelon
Ashkelon or Ashqelon (; Hebrew: , , ; Philistine: ), also known as Ascalon (; Ancient Greek: , ; Arabic: , ), is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with ...
by sea and reaching Kiryat Gat
Kiryat Gat, also spelled Qiryat Gat ( he, קִרְיַת גַּת), is a city in the Southern District of Israel. It lies south of Tel Aviv, north of Beersheba, and from Jerusalem. In it had a population of . The city hosts one of the most a ...
, 20 miles into Israel. The scale of weapons, supplies and plans indicated, according to Israel, that Hamas intended to inflict mass casualties on Israeli civilians and military forces over an extended period. Western and Middle Eastern security officials gathered evidence suggesting that Hamas intended to invade as far as the West Bank, had the initial attack been more successful.
See also
* History of Hamas
* Outline of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Wikipedia articles available about the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. It is an evolving list.
Top level articles
* 2023 Gaza humanitarian crisis
* 2023 Hamas attack o ...
* Timeline of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
A timeline is a display of a list of events in Chronology, chronological order. It is typically a graphic design showing a long bar labelled with calendar date, dates paralleling it, and usually contemporaneous events.
Timelines can use any ...
* Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. It was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) against the forces o ...
* Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...
* September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
* Ramadan Offensive (2003)
The Ramadan Offensive was a series of insurgent attacks against Coalition and Iraqi military targets from the end of October and during much of November 2003.
The attacks are called the Ramadan Offensive because they were conducted during the M ...
* List of major terrorist incidents
This is a list of terrorist incidents conducted by violent non-state actors, i.e. excluding state terrorism.
Attacks 1950 to 1999 1971
McGurk's Bar bombing
*Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland
*Killed: 15 (17 injured)
*Perpetrator: Ulster Volun ...
* List of massacres in Israel
List of massacres in Israel is a list of massacres that have occurred in Israel after the 1948 Palestine War.
*For massacres that have occurred in Roman Judea prior to the establishment of the Roman province of Syria Palæstina, see List of ...
Notes
References
External links
Hamas Massacre documentation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamas attack on Israel, 2023
*
Child murder in Israel
Palestinian war crimes
Massacres of Jews
Massacres in 2023
Filmed killings in Asia
October 2023 events in Israel
Wartime sexual violence
2023 attack on Israel
Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine attacks
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attacks
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine attacks
Articles containing video clips