Israel's Zak rescue service said this evening that around 260 bodies had been found at the site of a music festival attended by thousands of people when the Hamas attack on Israel began early Saturday morning.
The death toll at the Supernova festival in the southern desert is estimated to be higher as other emergency crews are also deployed to the site.
A video posted on social media and in Israeli media shows dozens of people running in an open space as gunshots rang out.
Many of them hid in nearby orchards or were shot while fleeing. The concert was organized during the celebration of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
The number of people killed in the Islamic extremist Hamas attack on Israel has exceeded 700, Hebrew-language media reported, citing health officials. More than 2.100 people have been wounded in Israel so far.
Hamas announced this evening that the number of Palestinians killed in the war increased to 413 and that 2.300 were wounded. Most of them were killed in the Gaza Strip in Israeli retaliatory airstrikes.
(BETA)
The Ministry of Defense of Montenegro announced that it strongly condemns terrorist armed attacks and kidnappings of Israeli citizens.
The President of Israel, Isak Herzog, appealed tonight for national unity, heroism and togetherness, judging that this is Israel's strongest weapon.
He labeled Hamas' attack on southern and central Israeli territory an "unforgivable sin", not only of that organization, which he labeled "murderous and terrorist, but of the axis of evil whose base is in Iran."
Herzog also said that Hamas is a "monstrous animal" that kills small children and old women.
"Brothers and sisters we are at war for our home and we will win," said the president, whose role in Israel's political life is largely ceremonial.
Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said in his first public statement since the surprise attack by Hamas on Saturday morning that the country and its army are waging war against a "wrong attack" that he labeled "murderous terrorism."
Halevi added that the Israeli army attacks anyone who participated in it and reminded that there are detained civilians and members of the security forces in the hands of the enemy, as he said.
"That's why this is a time for war. Not a round, not an operation, but a time for war," the Israeli army chief said.
(BETA)
A school in the Gaza Strip where 225 people took shelter from rocket fire was directly hit, the United Nations (UN) Palestinian refugee agency announced.
No one was injured, but the building was significantly damaged, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said.
The agency added that it is currently providing shelter to 73.538 displaced persons in 64 schools across the Palestinian enclave.
(Radio Free Europe)
The brutal attack by Hamas is met with a strong retaliation by Israel. But is it a preparation for a ground offensive on the Gaza Strip or even the beginning of a major war? Experts say it is not out of the question.
The head of Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakala, said today that his faction is holding captive more than 30 Israelis kidnapped in the Gaza Strip since Saturday after Hamas launched attacks on Israel, Reuters reports.
"The prisoners will not be repatriated until all our prisoners are released," al-Nakala added, referring to the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
So far, 35 Montenegrin citizens have contacted the Consulate of Montenegro in Tel Aviv or through the Embassy of Serbia in Israel, 19 of whom have expressed their desire to return, announced the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MVP) Robert Markić.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Gilad Erdan, today accused the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas of committing war crimes, promising that it is time to "wipe out" Hamas' terrorist infrastructure, while at the same time seeking to keep the negotiations on the normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia on track. on the way, Reuters reports.
"These are war crimes, obvious documented war crimes. The era of reasoning with these savages is over. Now is the time to destroy the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas, to wipe it out completely, so that such horrors are never committed again," Erdan told reporters. .
At least 413 Palestinians were killed and 2,3 thousand wounded in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced.
Among those killed were 48 children and 41 women, according to the Ministry of Health, which is based in Gaza, under the control of Hamas.
The Israeli army announced that at least 400 "Palestinian terrorists" were killed in Israel and in attacks on the Gaza Strip, reports Al Jazeera Balakans.
The number of people killed in Hamas attacks on Israel has exceeded 700, according to Israeli media citing health officials.
The surprise attack by Hamas was carried out early Saturday morning by combined attacks by militants who penetrated Israeli cities, with a barrage of thousands of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel is at war.
(MINE)
The UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced today that more than 74.000 people in the Gaza Strip took refuge in schools in the Palestinian territory, after Israel's appeal to residents to evacuate the border areas.
The number of displaced people increased by almost 50.000 overnight, after the first 20.000 displaced people took refuge in UN-run schools.
The agency confirmed that a UN school was directly hit today and that a lot of damage was caused, but there were no casualties.
AP video shows a large crater in the middle of the school where 225 people took refuge.
"Schools and other civilian infrastructure, including where displaced families are sheltering, should never be attacked," UNRWA said.
In the Gaza Strip, a small densely populated enclave of 2,3 million people that has been under an Israeli blockade for almost 16 years, there are fears that Israel will step up retaliation for the surprise attack by Hamas that began on Saturday morning.
(BETA)
The number of people killed in the Islamic extremist Hamas attack on Israel has exceeded 700, the Hebrew-language media reported this evening, citing health officials.
This morning it was reported that more than 300 people have been killed in Israel since Saturday morning when Hamas launched a surprise offensive on the south and central part of the country with rocket attacks and the insertion of extremists across the border with the Gaza Strip.
The death toll, however, doubled this afternoon and continued to rise.
While the members of the Israeli security forces were fighting with the "Hamas" in the streets of populated areas in the south, the bodies of the murdered residents were found from the areas over which Israel regained control.
More than 2.100 people have been wounded in Israel so far.
370 people were killed and more than 2.200 wounded in Israeli retaliatory airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, Hamas said this afternoon.
Israel has announced that it is at war, and that the number of people killed is staggering.
(BETA)
Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi said today that he supports the "legitimate defense of the Palestinian nation", stating that "the Zionist regime and its supporters are responsible for instability in the region".
Ali Shamkani, a political adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said on the social platform X that the Hamas attack was a "resolute, unique and effective" operation that was a legitimate defense.
"The Palestinian resistance is a mature and independent movement whose power derives from broad public support," he added.
(BETA)
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida today condemned Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups for their incursion into Israel and called on the warring parties to exercise restraint.
"Japan strongly condemns the attacks in which innocent civilians were killed," Kishida wrote on the social platform X (X).
Kishida also condemned the abduction of the people, calling for their immediate release.
South Korea's foreign ministry also said it strongly condemned the "indiscriminate attacks on Israel from Gaza" and called for an immediate end to the attacks.
The Japanese government said it was working to keep its citizens safe in Israel and Gaza, while South Korea's foreign ministry urged its citizens to leave the areas.
(BETA)
German Chancellor Josef Scholz today stressed the need to avoid a wider "fire" in the Middle East after Hamas attacked Israel.
Scholz said that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today and convinced him that Israel's security is the cornerstone of German policy. He vowed that his country would "act accordingly" and planned to speak with Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and support Cairo's efforts to mediate a de-escalation of the conflict.
Scholz said he would also speak by phone with the leaders of the US, France and Great Britain to analyze the situation.
"It is clear that we strongly condemn the action of Hamas, but above all we are doing everything to prevent this attack from turning into a fire with unforeseeable consequences for the entire region and we are warning everyone not to encourage terrorism," he said.
(BETA)
The war between Israel and Hamas has killed almost 1.000 people in less than 48 hours, according to new official figures released this afternoon.
More than 600 people were killed in Israel, the press service of the Israeli government announced on social networks, and more than 2.000 were wounded.
In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory under the control of Hamas since 2007, 370 Palestinians were killed and around 2.000 were wounded, local authorities announced.
The Israeli army has deployed tens of thousands of troops to regain control of the southern areas near the Gaza Strip and to rescue the remaining Israeli hostages and evacuate all residents by tomorrow morning.
It was also reported today that Hamas has taken more than 100 hostages to the Gaza Strip.
In an effort to regain control after a surprise offensive on Saturday morning, in the middle of the Jewish holiday of Shabbat, Israeli forces today continued to pursue "Hamas" who have infiltrated southern Israel and airstrikes targets in the Gaza Strip.
"We will kill every terrorist present in Israel," said military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
The Israeli army said it had retaken control of the police station in Sderot after it said it had "neutralized 10 terrorists" who were there.
An AFP journalist saw that the building was completely destroyed.
"The first phase has ended with the elimination of the vast majority of the enemy forces that entered our territory," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, warning that the war could be "long and difficult."
With the support of a barrage of rocket fire from Gaza on Israel, Hamas fighters entered Israel in vehicles, boats and on paragliders through and over the border fence and attacked military positions and civilians in the streets.
Today, Israel was also attacked on the northern border with Lebanon.
Lebanon's Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and Iran, fired mortar shells into the disputed border area, prompting Israeli retaliation with a drone strike on the Hebolah target in Lebanon.
In Egypt, two Israeli tourists were killed by a local policeman. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, meanwhile, claimed to have captured scores of Israeli soldiers.
The Prime Minister of Israel assessed that what happened now was unprecedented.
The Hamas offensive was launched 50 years and one day after the Israeli-Arab war of 1973, which also took Israel completely by surprise and in which 2.600 Israelis died in three weeks of fighting.
Hamas's military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, announced on Saturday that it had launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against Israel and that more than 5.000 rockets had been fired to "end the crimes of the occupiers".
Israel has occupied the West Bank and the eastern part of Jerusalem since 1967, and the Gaza Strip has been under blockade for more than 15 years.
In retaliation for the Hamas offensive, the Israeli army announced Operation "Iron Swords", destroying buildings in what it claims are Hamas command centers.
The supply of electricity, food and other necessities to Gaza has been suspended.
The attack by Hamas was condemned by Western countries, and the US is expected to announce new military aid to Israel soon, and an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the war situation will be held today.
The offensive was launched while the US is negotiating the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which was condemned by Hamas.
(BETA)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today that a solution based on the establishment of two states of Israel and Palestine is the only way to achieve regional peace.
Speaking in Istanbul, he added that Turkey is determined to step up diplomatic efforts to achieve a de-escalation of the conflict between Israeli and Palestinian forces.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said today that he was "working overtime" to verify reports of several Americans killed and missing after the extremist group Hamas attacked Israel.
"We have reports that several Americans have been killed. We are working overtime to confirm that. At the same time, there are reports of missing Americans and we are working to verify those reports," Blinken told CNN.
Blinken said an announcement on additional US aid to Israel in response to the attack could be made later in the day.
"We are looking at the specific additional requests that the Israelis have made - I think you will probably hear more about that later today," he said.
The senior American diplomat added that the US "will make sure to provide Israel with everything it needs at this time to deal with the attacks of Hamas."
Blinken also said that the Hamas attacks could be aimed at "derailing" the new diplomatic agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
"It's no surprise that Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are opposed to negotiations. They are also opposed to Israel normalizing relations with its neighbors and countries outside the region. And so it is entirely possible that one of the motives for this attack was an attempt to thwart efforts to normalize relations. ", he said.
US President Joseph Biden said yesterday that his administration's support for Israel's security is "firm and unwavering".
However, former US President Donald Trump said that the administration unfroze Iranian funds and that Biden "betrayed Israel".
Blinken reiterated earlier today that no money from the unfrozen funds was spent for humanitarian purposes.
"So people are either misinformed or misinformed," he said, adding, "Either way, it's wrong."
(BETA)
Polish President Andrzej Duda said today that the conflict in the Middle East between Hamas and Israel benefits Russia because it diverts international attention from Moscow's aggression against Ukraine and may lead to new migratory pressure on Europe, Reuters reports.
In an interview with the private news channel Polsat News, Duda stated that the conflict "certainly benefits Russia and its aggression against Ukraine. It distracts the world's attention. But above all, I fear that, unfortunately, it will cause further migration pressure on Europe."
"We will probably have another wave of migrants from the Middle East, which will hit Europe. Our security, the protection of Poland's borders, as well as the border of the European Union and the Schengen zone, becomes even more important," the Polish president added.
(BETA)
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, today called on world leaders to show solidarity and unity in support of Israel and to condemn the "terrorist attack" by the Palestinian group Hamas.
"Let the value of human life and intolerance of terror be the principles that will finally unite the whole world," Zelenskiy said, Reuters reports.
He repeated that Israel, just like Ukraine, has "every right" to protect itself.
(BETA)
A London-born man who served in the Israeli army was killed on the Gaza border on Saturday, his family said, and another Briton is missing, the Israeli embassy in London said on Sunday, Reuters reports.
The Jewish News reported that Nathanel Young was one of many Israeli soldiers killed in multiple attacks by Palestinian gunmen.
The family's statement on Facebook read: "We are heartbroken that our younger brother Natanel Young was tragically killed yesterday at the Gaza border."
The second man went missing early Saturday, the embassy said.
His mother, Lisa, told Jewish News that Jake Marlowe, 26, was providing security at the music festival and that she last heard from her son via text message.
"He was working security at this rave and he called me at 4:30 to say all these rockets were flying over. Then, at about 5:30, he texted to say, 'Signal very bad, everything's fine, he'll keep you posted, I promise to you,' and that he loves me," she said.
Reuters reported, citing a spokesman for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that a French citizen was killed in the attacks in Israel.
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