Israel humbled by intelligence failure, spectacular Hamas attack

SDEROT, Israel: Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise large-scale attack against Israel Saturday, firing thousands of rockets from Gaza and sending fighters to kill or abduct citizens as Israel retaliated with devastating air strikes.

Gun battles raged into the night as at least 252 people were reported killed in Israel, while Gaza authorities released a death toll of 198 in the conflict’s bloodiest escalation in years which also left many hundreds wounded on both sides.

"We are at war," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the stunned nation as the air force pounded targets in the blockaded coastal enclave, including several residential tower blocks that were completely destroyed. “The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” the veteran premier vowed after Hamas had launched its first such combined ground, air and sea offensive, half a century after the outbreak of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

The army said in the evening its forces were still engaged in live gun-battles in 22 locations, in an ongoing operation labelled “Swords of Iron”, as reservists were being called up. “There are still 22 locations where we are engaging with terrorists that came into Israel, from the sea, from the land and from the air,” said army spokesman Richard Hecht, adding that the Hamas attack included a “robust ground invasion”.

He said there was a “severe hostage situation in Beeri and also in Ofakim”, two communities in the Negev desert east of Gaza. Hecht said Israel had counted more than 3,000 incoming rockets through the day.

Hamas earlier released images of several Israelis taken captive, and another Israeli army spokesman, Daniel Hagari, confirmed that there are kidnapped soldiers and civilians. “I can’t give figures about them at the moment. It’s a war crime committed by Hamas and they will pay the price.” The Islamist group started the multi-pronged attack around 6:30 am (0330 GMT) with thousands of rockets aimed as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, some bypassing the Iron Dome defence system and hitting buildings.

Hamas fighters, travelling in vehicles, boats and motorised paragliders, breached Gaza’s security barrier and attacked nearby Israeli towns and military posts, opening fire on residents and passersby.

“Send help, please!” one Israeli woman sheltering with her two-year-old child pleaded as militants outside opened fire and tried to break into their safe room, Israeli media reported.

AFP journalists witnessed attackers gather around a burning Israeli tank, and others driving a seized Israeli military Humvee back into Gaza, where they were met by cheering crowds.

Bodies were seen lying on the streets of Sderot near Gaza and inside cars, their windscreens shattered by bullets. “I saw many bodies, of terrorists and civilians,” one man who gave his name as Shlomi told AFP, standing beside covered corpses on a road near Gevim Kibbutz in southern Israel. “So many bodies, so many bodies.”

Israeli army Major General Ghasan Alyan warned that Hamas had “opened the gates of hell”. Israeli officials denied reports that Hamas had captured a senior Israeli official, a major general.

However, some media reports showed a senior Israeli army officer being paraded in Gaza.

An AFP journalist in Gaza saw smoke billowing from the remains of a residential tower which Gaza’s interior ministry said contained 100 apartments and was completely destroyed. Israel’s military said it had warned residents to evacuate before targeting the multi-storey buildings used by Hamas. The aid group Doctors Without Borders said one strike had hit the enclave’s Indonesian hospital and an ambulance outside Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, causing multiple deaths.

As night fell, Israel’s state-run electricity company cut the power supply to Gaza. The escalation follows months of rising violence, mostly in the occupied West Bank, and tensions around Gaza’s border and at contested holy sites in Jerusalem.

Hamas labelled its attack “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” and called on “resistance fighters in the West Bank” as well as in “Arab and Islamic nations” to join the battle. “We decided to put an end to all the crimes of the occupation (Israel),” said its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, claiming to have fired more than 5,000 rockets.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh claimed the group was on the “verge of a great victory and a clear conquest on the Gaza front”. “Enough is enough,” he said in a televised address. “The cycle of intifadas (uprisings) and revolutions in the battle to liberate our land and our prisoners languishing in occupation prisons must be completed.”

Air raid sirens wailed across southern and central Israel, as well as in Jerusalem, where multiple incoming rockets were intercepted by air defence systems. In Tel Aviv, a gaping hole was ripped into a building, with residents boarding a bus to seek safety in a hotel.

Rocket impacts left cars burning beneath residential buildings in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, north of Gaza.

Among the dead was the president of a regional council for Israeli communities northeast of Gaza, who was killed in a gun-battle. Schools will remain closed on Sunday, the start of the week in Israel.

The conflict sparked major disruption at Tel Aviv airport, with American Airlines, Emirates and Ryanair among carriers with cancelled flights.

Israel’s ambassador to France admitted that his country was not “sufficiently prepared” for the attack launched by Hamas, pointing to a failure of the intelligence services. “Following this surprise, we were not sufficiently prepared for it, we could even say barely prepared,” ambassador Raphael Morav said in an interview with France’s Europe 1 radio.

Asked about a possible failure of the Israeli intelligence services, the Israeli diplomat replied “certainly, certainly, yes... because normally we should have been prepared”. “Lessons will have to be learned,” he added.

In northern Gaza on Saturday, hundreds of people fled their homes, carrying food and blankets, an AFP correspondent said. Across the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, three Palestinians were killed and around 80 wounded in clashes with Israeli forces and settlers, the Palestinian health ministry and Red Crescent Society said. In Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, some Palestinian residents cheered and blew their car horns as sirens blared.

The United States condemned the attacks by “Hamas terrorists” and vowed to ensure the key US ally has the means to defend itself. President Joe Biden described the assault as “horrific” and said that he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to underline that the United States stood “ready to offer all appropriate means of support.”

As the attacks threatened to trigger a wider conflict, Biden warned “against any other party hostile to Israel seeking advantage in this situation”.

Biden stressed that Israel, which the United States has supplied with billions of dollars of arms, has “a right to defend itself and its people”. Former president Donald Trump weighed in Saturday, blaming Biden, without evidence, for indirectly funding the attacks.

“These Hamas attacks are a disgrace and Israel has every right to defend itself with overwhelming force,” Trump said in a statement. “Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration.”

0US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday spoke with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose Fatah movement is a rival to Hamas, urging him to condemn the Hamas attack on Israel. In the call, Blinken “called on all leadership in the region to condemn” the Hamas assault on Israel, the US State Department said in a statement.

Meanwhile, President Dr Arif Alvi said on Saturday he was deeply disturbed over escalation of violence in Palestine and Israel. In a statement posted on X, he said there should be maximum restraint to prevent further bloodshed and loss of human lives. He said the situation calls for an immediate ceasefire as the hostility and confrontation between Palestine and Israel would further increase the sufferings of people.

“I urge the international community to play its active role to prevent both sides from further escalating the conflict and work for a long overdue peaceful resolution of the dispute in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions and international law,” the president said.

Expressing his concern on the Middle East situation, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said on Saturday he was heartbroken by the escalating violence in the Middle East, which underscored the urgent need to address the Palestine Question. In a post on X, he said “We urge restraint and protection of civilians. Enduring peace in the Middle East lies in a two-state solution with a viable, contiguous, sovereign State of Palestine, founded on pre-1967 borders, with Al Quds Al-Sharif at its heart.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said Pakistan was concerned at the unfolding situation in the Middle East. “We are closely monitoring the unfolding situation in the Middle East and the eruption of hostilities between Israel and Palestinians. We are concerned about the human cost of the escalating situation,” said the statement.

The Foreign Office further said: “Pakistan has consistently advocated for a two-state solution as the key to enduring peace in the Middle East, with a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Palestinian question anchored in international law and in line with relevant United Nations and OIC resolutions.

“A viable, sovereign and contiguous State of Palestine should be established on the basis of pre-1967 borders, with Al Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

“We call on the international community to come together for cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians and for a lasting peace in the Middle East.”

Pakistani politicians also extended full support to Palestinians in separate statements. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said he was deeply concerned at the serious escalation of hostilities between Israeli occupation forces and Palestinians. Former president Asif Ali Zardari extended his support and solidarity to the Palestinian people, acknowledging the long-standing struggle they waged against Israel’s oppression and brutality. Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed concern over the current situation between Palestine and Israel. He emphasised the importance of pursuing a durable diplomatic solution to the crisis, urging the United Nations and the international community to play a proactive role in preventing further harm and displacement of innocent lives. Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq expressed solidarity with the Palestinian cause and supported “the actions carried out by Palestinian freedom fighters against Israel.”