"A sea of bodies" as Israel-Palestine conflict escalates

Israeli security forces stand along a debris-strewn street in Tel Aviv, after it was hit by a rocket fired by Palestinian fighters from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. Photo/AFP

Fighters from the Palestinian group Hamas rampaged through Israeli towns on Saturday killing and capturing scores of civilians and soldiers in a surprise assault, met by Israel with massive retaliatory air strikes that killed scores in the Gaza Strip.

At least 200 Israelis were reported killed and 1,100 wounded by gunbattles raging in more than 20 locations inside Israel, AFP reported. In Gaza, health officials reported more than 230 people killed and 1,600 wounded.

Hamas said the attack was driven by Israel's escalated attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem and against Palestinians in Israeli prisons. "This is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on earth," Hamas military commander Mohammad Deif said, announcing the start of the operation in a broadcast on Hamas media and calling on Palestinians everywhere to fight.

In Sderot, in southern Israel near Gaza, bodies of Israeli civilians lay strewn across a highway, surrounded by broken glass. A woman and a man were sprawled out dead across the front seats of a car.

A military vehicle drove past the bodies of another woman and a man in a pool of blood behind another car. "I went out, I saw loads of bodies of terrorists, civilians, cars shot up. A sea of bodies, inside Sderot along the road, other places, loads of bodies," Shlomi from Sderot told AFP.

In Gaza, black smoke and orange flames billowed into the evening sky from a high-rise tower hit by an Israeli strike. Crowds of mourners carried the bodies of freshly killed Palestinians through the streets, wrapped in green Hamas flags.

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Gaza's dead and wounded were carried into crumbling and overcrowded hospitals with severe shortages of medical supplies and equipment. The health ministry said 232 people had been killed.

Streets were deserted apart from ambulances racing to the scenes of air strikes. Israel cut the power, plunging the city into darkness.

Hamas said it fired a volley of 150 rockets towards Tel Aviv on Saturday evening in retaliation for an Israeli air strike that took down a high-rise building with more than 100 apartments.

Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri told Al Jazeera that the group was holding a large number of Israeli captives, including senior officials. He said Hamas had enough captives to make Israel free all Palestinians in its jails.

The attack, which began at 6.30 am local time (03:30 GMT) on Saturday involved Hamas fighters, who infiltrated Israel by land, sea, and air.

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned Hamas it made a "grave mistake" in carrying out the rocket attacks and ground assault, ANI reported.

"Citizens of Israel, we are at war. The enemy will pay an unprecedented price," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message from military headquarters in Tel Aviv after the attacks broke out.

Israel's military launched a series of air raids on Gaza in response to the attacks, the ANI report said.

Hamas would pay a "heavy price for its actions", the Israeli military told citizens living near the Gaza Strip, ordering them to remain inside their houses.

That Israel was caught completely off guard was lamented as one of the worst intelligence failures in its history, a shock to a nation that boasts of its intensive infiltration and monitoring of fighters.

In Gaza, a narrow strip where 2.3 million Palestinians have lived under an Israeli blockade for 16 years, residents rushed to buy supplies in anticipation of days of war ahead. Some evacuated their homes and headed for shelters. (Agencies)