Hostages taken as Hamas launches biggest attack on Israel in years – with strikes hitting Gaza in response

At least 232 Palestinians have been killed after Israeli forces retaliated to the most deadly attack by Hamas in years.

The number of dead inside Israel currently stands at 250, according to local media reports.

Some 1,700 Israelis have been left wounded – and civilians and soldiers taken hostage, Israeli officials confirmed, after thousands of rockets were first launched from Gaza on Saturday morning.

The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that at least 1,610 have been wounded in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is “at war” and “will win”, later adding that the events of the last 24 hours have “never been seen in Israel” and that the state will “take mighty vengeance for this black day”.

The military says it is still engaged in fighting with Hamas at 22 locations across southern Israel.

Hamas’s political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh claims the group is “on the verge of a great victory and clear conquest on the Gaza front”.

Airstrike flattens high-rise in Gaza; follow Israel-Gaza latest

Militants breach usually heavily-guarded border

In a highly unusual development, Hamas fighters were also seen crossing the heavily-guarded Israeli border using paragliders, in an apparent failure of the intelligence services.

As rockets struck Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Yavne and Kfar Aviv on Saturday morning, militants breached the border by sea and on foot.

Security camera footage showed them entering the Israeli town of Sderot, a mile from Gaza, in pick-up trucks and on motorbikes.

Retaliating to the incursion, the Israeli air force confirmed dozens of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fighter jets struck a number of Hamas military compounds and operational command centres in the Gaza Strip.

The house of Hamas’s Gaza chief Yehya Al-Sinwar in the south of the Strip was targeted, but there were no reports of any casualties.

An IDF spokesman announced late on Saturday that one of their commanders, Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Steinberg was killed in an “encounter with a terrorist” near Kerem Shalom.

Israelis taken hostage

Hamas militants have also taken both civilians and soldiers hostage in Gaza, the Israeli military confirmed – without revealing how many.

According to local news channel N12, 50 people were being held by Hamas gunmen in Beeri Kibbutz near the Gaza border.

Social media footage showed a number of people, including an elderly Israeli woman, being paraded through Gaza. Other clips showed bodies on the streets.

Senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri, claimed the group had enough captives to make Israel free all its Palestinian prisoners.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said soldiers were among the dead, but described reports of high-ranking commanders being taken hostage as “fake news”.

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In Israel, cars were set on fire and buildings were damaged, with plumes of smoke billowing from tower blocks.

As air raid sirens sounded across south and central regions, residents living along the border were instructed to stay indoors.

Israel claims 3,500 Hamas rockets have been fired in total, including a salvo of 500 towards Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, while the group’s military commander Mohammad Deif put the figure at 5,000.

The Israeli police force said four people were injured as a result of the Tel Aviv attacks.

Emergency meeting despite Shabbat

Mr Netanyahu convened a meeting of his security cabinet in Tel Aviv, despite the Shabbat day of rest, where he stated three objectives after declaring his country is at war.

He said: “Our first objective is to clear out the hostile forces that infiltrated our territory and restore the security and quiet to the communities that have been attacked.

“The second objective, at the same time, is to exact an immense price from the enemy, within the Gaza Strip as well. The third objective is to reinforce other fronts so that nobody should mistakenly join this war.”

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant added that Hamas had “made a grave mistake this morning and launched a war against the State of Israel”.

In response, energy minister Israel Katz also signed an order cutting off electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip, as part of what is being called ‘Operation Swords of Iron’.

Attacks in response to Al Aqsa mosque violence

Speaking on Hamas radio, its commander Mr Deif said: “This is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on earth.”

He said the attack was the beginning of “Operation Al Aqsa Storm” and was in response to Israeli violence in the West Bank, Gaza, and around Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem.

“Today the people are regaining their revolution,” he said in the recorded message. “We must set the earth on fire under the feet of the occupiers.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reacted by saying his people have the right to defend themselves against the “terror of settlers and occupation of troops”.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said it was also involved in the day’s events, as Hamas called on armed groups in Lebanon to get involved.

Global leaders ‘utterly condemn act of terror’

Governments around the world have condemned the attacks on Israel including the US, France, and Germany.

Brazil, which currently has the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, said it would convene an emergency meeting to discuss the major escalation.

The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has said it is also enhancing its presence near the border with Israel as a result of the violence.

US President Joe Biden told a White House press conference that the US will “not ever fail to have her [Israel’s] back”.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with President Abbas on Saturday, “urging the Palestinian Authority to continue and enhance steps to restore calm”.

British PM Rishi Sunak said: “I am shocked by this morning’s attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli citizens. Israel has an absolute right to defend itself. We’re in contact with Israeli authorities, and British nationals in Israel should follow travel advice.”

The UK’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly added: “The UK unequivocally condemns the horrific attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians. The UK will always support Israel’s right to defend itself.”

He denounced the Palestinian movement as “terrorists” and “not fighters [nor] militants”, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer “utterly condemn[ed]” the attacks as “an act of terror”.

Meanwhile, Iran has expressed support for the Palestinian assault, one of its local news agencies ISNA reported.

“We congratulate the Palestinian fighters,” it quoted Iranian military commander Rahim Safavi, who added: “We will stand by the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem.”

The attacks come after weeks of heightened tensions along Israel’s volatile border with Gaza, and heavy fighting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.