Israel Pulverizing Gaza By Air After Hamas Attack: Live Updates

Standing near the Gaza border on Tuesday, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant addressed soldiers to inform them of the military actions to come: “Hamas wanted a change, and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be.”

So far, this has entailed a tremendous amount of air strikes in the 139-square-mile exclave. As many as 200,000 people have been displaced by the relentless shelling, with over 830 killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. The neighborhood of Al Rimal, where the ministries run by Hamas are headquartered, has been hit especially hard. “The whole district was just erased,” a resident whose home was destroyed told Reuters.

The Israeli military has stated that dozens of tanks and tens of thousands of soldiers have been stationed near the Gaza border as military officials hint at an excursion into the area in the coming days. In his speech to troops near the border, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “we will come from the ground” and that future efforts “will only intensify.”

“The scope of this is going to be bigger than before and more severe. It’s not going to be clean,” the Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Richard Hecht told reporters on Tuesday. “We are going to go very, very aggressively against Hamas.”

Military experts have warned that a full reoccupation of Gaza would result in massive casualties for Israeli forces, Hamas fighters, and civilians. “You’re talking about an area in which they haven’t been on the ground since 2005, and [Hamas] were able to prepare this whole operation without Israeli intelligence having a clue,” Mouin Rabbani, a nonresident fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, told The Wall Street Journal. The last time the IDF entered Gaza was in the 2014 war, in which thousands of civilians were killed.

President Joe Biden said in an address on Tuesday afternoon that there are several Americans among the approximately 150 captives taken hostage by Hamas and being held in Gaza. Biden also stated that the number of Americans killed in the attack has risen to 14. He said the U.S. will send additional military aid — including more interceptors to replenish the Iron Dome defense system — and he will request even more aid from Congress when lawmakers return from recess. “Like every nation in the world, Israel has the right to respond — indeed, has a duty to respond — to these vicious attacks,” he said. He also described the attack as an “act of sheer evil.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has scheduled a trip to Israel for later in the week to show support. In a statement on Tuesday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. “did not see anything that suggested an attack of this type was going to unfold any more than the Israelis did.”

The Wall Street Journal took a comprehensive look at how Israel, by focusing on air warfare, cyberattacks, and underground incursions, left itself vulnerable to a brazen frontal assault on its border:

While Israel has long focused on gaining a technological advantage over its enemies — it is widely thought to have first developed nuclear weapons in the 1960s — the military has accelerated a shift toward advanced air, defense and intelligence systems over the past two decades.

For the Israeli army, the 2006 war with Hezbollah, where it fought guerrilla fighters on the rocky hills of southern Lebanon, illustrated the limits of superior bombs and artillery in counterinsurgency battles, similar to the U.S. experience in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Israel’s leadership began to believe the main threats to security were no longer ground invasions like the country saw in previous wars with Arab nations such as Egypt and Jordan — with which it signed peace treaties — but unconventional threats from rockets and insurgent attacks by nonstate groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

And the Washington Post laid out exactly how Hamas fighters breached a supposedly unbreachable area between the Gaza Strip and southern Israel:

In 2021, then–Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the barrier placed an “iron wall” between Hamas and southern Israel.

But on Saturday, a surprise series of coordinated efforts enabled Hamas to get past the wall. The fence was breached at 29 points, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Though there were Israeli guard towers positioned every 500 feet along the perimeter of the wall at some points, the fighters appeared to encounter little resistance.

The border was minimally staffed, it soon became apparent, with much of Israel’s military diverted to focus on unrest in the West Bank.

As Israeli officials try to understand the country’s greatest security failure in decades, there is already reporting suggesting that intelligence on the attack was ignored. “The IDF has been warning for months about a reduction in readiness, a decrease in deterrence capability, and the possibility of a multifront flare-up,” wrote reporter Yuval Sade of the business publication Calcalist. One such warning came on September 20 when opposition leader Yair Lapid claimed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was ignoring intelligence from defense officials about a “violent, multifront confrontation.” “What is even more dangerous is that the government is not coordinated with the security establishment,” he said.

Others, like Globes correspondent Tal Schneider, have pointed out how Netanyahu empowered Hamas in an effort to ensure infighting between Palestinian factions:

For years, the various governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu took an approach that divided power between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — bringing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to his knees while making moves that propped up the Hamas terror group.

The idea was to prevent Abbas — or anyone else in the Palestinian Authority’s West Bank government — from advancing toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Thus, amid this bid to impair Abbas, Hamas was upgraded from a mere terror group to an organization with which Israel held indirect negotiations via Egypt, and one that was allowed to receive infusions of cash from abroad.

As of Tuesday morning, an Israeli Defense Force military spokesman stated that it has taken back towns along the border of Gaza and expects to have full control of the border by the end of the day. The IDF spokesman also claimed the forces have killed 1,500 Hamas fighters since the start of the attack on Saturday. Hamas stated that two senior officials were killed in the Gaza strikes. Targets have included mosques, a marketplace, and two hospitals, according to the United Nations. Per the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, at least 830 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli air strikes began. In response to the air strikes, Hamas has launched a wave of rockets toward Tel Aviv.

With the military and police returning order after the attack in Israel, government officials are now counting the dead and tracking down the missing. As of Tuesday morning, more than 1,000 Israelis are confirmed dead, including 260 people killed at a music festival miles from Gaza.

Palestinian militant groups are believed to be holding at least 150 hostages in Gaza, including scores of civilians — even whole families — who were captured in Israel during the weekend attack. Hamas has claimed that it wants to exchange the hostages for Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons and that the hostages are being held in secure locations throughout Gaza. But on Monday, a spokesman for Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades announced that the group would begin executing hostages, and releasing videos of those executions, in response to “any targeting of civilian homes without advanced warning” by Israel. That advance warning had been Israel’s policy until it was suspended, also on Monday.

As anguished friends and family members wait for any news on the fates of their missing loved ones, it’s not clear when, how, or if Israel will be able to rescue or secure the release of any of the captives. There are already reportedly calls within Israel’s government to disregard the safety of the hostages in favor of all-out war with Hamas. There also appears to be some efforts, through intermediaries like Egypt and Qatar, to free some hostages. Per The Wall Street Journal:

There are already signs that Israel may be exploring a possible deal, at least to secure the release of women and children, using Egypt as an intermediary, according to Egyptian officials, But Hamas has given little indication it is prepared to negotiate unless it can secure the release of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli detention, according to the officials. Even if a partial agreement to release some prisoners is reached, Hamas and other militant groups are unlikely to turn over the dozens of Israeli soldiers they claim to be holding, raising the risks of casualties from Israel’s counteroffensive.

As the Washington Post reports, this hostage crisis is unprecedented — even in a country with so much previous experience with hostage crises:

[N]one of the previous episodes, experts say, compares with the mass kidnapping of children, grandparents and whole families, much of it captured on video and shared on social media. And none of the options the government may be considering are likely to end without more bloodshed, they said.

And there appears to be widespread public support for a massive military response — which would undoubtedly imperil the hostages:

The multipronged attack … shattered Israel’s shaky but enduring coexistence with Hamas. The regular rocket launches and periodic wars were largely deemed an acceptable price for otherwise containing the militant group. Now the country appears unified in calling for a major military intervention, whatever the costs.

“I think the Israeli public, from the far left to the far right, feels that the price of coexistence with Hamas is intolerable,” {military historian Danny] Orbach said … “The public wants to go into Gaza and attack Hamas. The public also wants the hostages to be safely rescued. I don’t think they’ve come to terms with the inherent contradiction.”

President Biden said in a statement on Monday that “at least 11 American citizens were among those killed — many of whom made a second home in Israel,” and he confirmed that it was “likely” Americans were also among the hostages that were captured by Hamas militants and then transported back to Gaza. CNN reports that the U.S. has offered to assist with hostage rescues, but not with U.S. troops on the ground:

The US is offering Israel special operations planning and intelligence support as part of the effort to rescue hostages taken by Hamas, a US defense official told CNN. The support would not entail US troops on the ground in Israel. Instead, the assistance would come in the form of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. It would include help from US Central Command and US Special Operations Command, the official said, as well as Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which is the command within the military that develops special operations tactics and plans.

Qatar has been in talks with Hamas about the hostages the terror group is holding inside Gaza, and the US has been coordinating with the Qataris as they play a key mediating role with Hamas, a senior US official and another person familiar with the discussions told CNN.

The president, who will deliver remarks on the crisis on Tuesday afternoon, also reaffirmed the U.S. and Israel’s “inseparable” bond:

This is not some distant tragedy. The ties between Israel and the United States run deep. It is personal for so many American families who are feeling the pain of this attack as well as the scars inflicted through millennia of antisemitism and persecution of Jewish people … 

In this moment of heartbreak, the American people stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israelis. We remember the pain of being attacked by terrorists at home, and Americans across the country stand united against these evil acts that have once more claimed innocent American lives. It is an outrage. And we will continue to show the world that the American people are unwavering in our resolve to oppose terrorism in all forms.

On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported that, according to Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, officers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had helped plan Palestinian militants’ coordinated incursion into Israel on Saturday. Iran has long supported Hamas and other militant groups, celebrated the attacks after they happened, and there are some similarities between the Hamas attacks and Iranian tactics. But a senior Hamas official denied the report, and U.S. officials have said they have seen no evidence linking Iran to the attacks yet, and there has been pushback to the claims from Israeli military officials as well:

The Pentagon has warned Iran and Hezbollah that the U.S. is prepared to assist in Israel’s defense and to “think twice” if they were considering joining the conflict.

Israel’s Health Ministry announced Monday that the confirmed death toll in the country had risen to over 900 people. More than 2,500 people have been injured. The vast majority of casualties in Israel appear to have been civilians.

Israeli forces have apparently cleared Hamas militants from towns that had been overrun over the weekend in southern Israel, a record 300,000 Israeli military reservists have been called up, and Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant has ordered a siege of Gaza, vowing to completely cut off the densely populated coastal territory. “There will be no electricity, food, or fuel,” he said, emphasizing that “we are fighting animals, and we will act accordingly.”

The order quickly prompted fears that such a siege would trigger an even more devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza than the one the has persisted there for years. The organization Human Rights Watch released a statement calling Gallant’s order “abhorrent” and a “call to commit a war crime.”

Relentless Israeli air strikes continue to pound what Israel says are Hamas targets in Gaza, as the Wall Street Journal reports:

Large plumes of gray smoke rose from residential areas in several cities and refugee camps across Gaza, where two million people are densely packed. Residents pulled charred bodies of bombing victims from the debris and rushed them through streets lined with burned-out cars and raging fires, images broadcast live on pan-Arab channel Al Jazeera.

A spokesman for Hamas said hundreds of Israeli airstrikes in the past few hours had struck residential towers, civilian facilities and mosques. Tens of thousands of residents have fled their homes, but there is nowhere safe to go.

The Washington Post adds that a mosque near a large refugee camp was leveled on Monday morning:

[The] airstrike destroyed the Ahmed Yassin Mosque near the al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza on Monday morning, witnesses told The Washington Post. The camp is home to more than 90,000 Palestinian refugees registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says that at 560 people have already been killed in Gaza. It’s not clear how many were militants and how many were civilians.

An Israeli land invasion seems to be inevitable at this point, but there are no signs it has begun yet.

The militant group claims it launched rockets on Monday at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ashkelon, and Ashdod. It’s not clear how much damage the rocket barrage did in and around the cities, or whether there were any casualties — and it seems Israel’s Iron Dome air-defense system has intercepted many of the rockets.

Israeli authorities now estimate that at least 700 people were killed in Israeli territory during the attack — the vast majority of them civilians.

Citizens of the U.K., France, Thailand, Ukraine, Germany, Nepal, and Mexico are among the dead, missing, or captured, according to the New York Times.

The Associated Press reports that a senior Hamas official has claimed the group is holding more than 100 people who were captured in Israeli territory amid the attack, including senior Israeli military commanders. Another militant group that participated in the attack, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has said it has more than 30 hostages.

Soldiers and civilians, including women, children, and seniors, are reportedly among those taken back to the Gaza Strip.

A senior Israeli military official has estimated that at 150 people were taken hostage.

Revelers at an outdoor trance-music festival in Israel had to run for their lives early Saturday morning after Hamas gunmen crossed the nearby Israel-Gaza border and opened fire on attendees. Israeli authorities said Sunday that at least 260 bodies have been recovered from the scene, and the toll is expected it rise. An unknown number of festivalgoers were taken captive by the militants.

Thousands of people attended Tribe of Nova’s “Supernova Sukkot Gathering” — an overnight three-stage rave held in rural southern Israel a few miles from the Gaza Strip to celebrate of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Around 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the first sign of danger for festivalgoers was when some heard rocket-warning sirens and heard or saw rockets in the sky. Then the music was shut off and someone announced there was a “red alert” over the speakers.

Witnesses say many began trying to escape the isolated festival site, but that led to a traffic jam. Then came the gunmen, who reportedly fired at everyone they saw.

In videos shared on social media, attendees can be seen fleeing the festival on foot and by car amid the sounds of gunfire and explosions in the background. Some videos show festivalgoers lying motionless on the ground. Others show young people being taken captive by militants. One video purportedly shot near the event shows dozens of shot-up or burned vehicles lining the road.

A video shared on TikTok, taken before the violence began, appears to show approaching militants in paragliders.

The Washington Post reports that Israeli authorities began recovering bodies from the site on Sunday:

Soldiers put bodies in the back of a large refrigerated truck parked next to hundreds of cars abandoned by partygoers. In one clearing, the shells of burned vehicles lay beside discarded tents, camping mats and coolers

Some survivors have recounted their terrifying experiences to journalists. CNN spoke with one attendee, Tal Gibly, who had taken video footage of the frantic scene:

Gibly told CNN she ran to the forest, and eventually got into another car driving past. She saw a number of dead and injured people on the sides of the road, but one scene in particular stuck with her: one concertgoer shot dead outside a van, and another dead in the vehicle’s passenger seat …

“It was so terrifying and we didn’t know where to drive to not meet those evil … people,” she said. “I have a lot of friends that got lost at the forest for a lot of hours and got shot like it was a range.”

Gibly is still trying to get in touch with her friends who were also at the concert. She says she doesn’t know if others survived, were taken prisoner, or worse.

Per the BBC, another woman who survived the attack described it to Channel 12:

They turned off the electricity and suddenly out of nowhere they [militants] come inside with gunfire, opening fire in every direction … Fifty terrorists arrived in vans, dressed in military uniforms …

They fired bursts, and we reached a point where everyone stopped their vehicles and started running. I went into a tree, a bush like this, and they just started spraying people. I saw masses of wounded people thrown around and I’m in a tree and trying to understand what’s going on.

Survivor Gili Yoskovich told BBC that she hid from the gunmen for hours, waiting for help that never came:

“The terrorists were coming from four or five places … so we didn’t know whether to go here, so then I got into my car again and I drove a little bit more.

“Some people were shooting at me. I left the car and started to run, I saw a place with many pomelo trees and I went there.

“So I was in the middle [of this field] and I was lying on the floor. It was the second hiding place I found and they were just all around me.

“They were going tree by tree and shooting. Everywhere. From two sides. I saw people were dying all around. I was very quiet. I didn’t cry, I didn’t do anything.

“But I was on the one hand breathing, saying: ‘OK, I’m going to die. It’s OK, just breathe, just close your eyes,’ because it was shooting everywhere, it was very very close to me.

“Then I heard the terrorists open a big van … and get more weapons from this car. They were in the area for three hours. No-one was there, no-one.

“I was sure the army would come, I heard some helicopters, I was sure the army would come down with helicopters and ropes and go down into this field and save us. But no-one was there. Just all these terrorists.

One of the missing festival attendees has been identified by family members as Shani Louk, a German-Israeli woman who was seen lying motionless in the back of a pickup truck in a video shared online. Per the Washington Post:

“We knew she was in the party; she didn’t answer,” her cousin in Berlin, Tom Weintraub Louk, said.

The revelers had been dancing in the area all night. Family members also desperately tried reach her Mexican boyfriend, but they couldn’t get through.

Later in the morning, in the slew of videos exchanged on social media, another cousin sent one that appeared to show Shani in the back of a pickup truck.

“She’s lying there on the jeep of Hamas with armed people,” said Louk, who hasn’t been able to bring herself to look at the video herself but said her cousin’s parents have. “We recognized her by the tattoos, and she has long dreadlocks,” she said. While her cousin appears lifeless, the family is still holding out for news, Louk said.

In the video the woman is facedown in the bed of the truck with four militants. One holds her hair while another raises a gun in the air and shouts “Allahu Akbar!” A crowd follows the truck cheering.

The organizers of the festival said Sunday that they are working with Israeli authorities to help locate missing attendees.

President Biden told Benjamin Netanyahu in a Sunday phone call that the U.S. was sending “additional military assistance” to Israel, as the country quickly requested Saturday, to aid in its war effort. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin later said in a statement that the U.S. was sending “additional equipment and resources, including munitions.” The U.S. is also moving an aircraft-carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Israel’s U.S. ambassador said Sunday that “dozens” of American citizens were among those taken hostage by Hamas militants during the attack. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the U.S. is working to verify the reports that Americans are among the dead and missing.

At least 600 people are believed dead in Israel, and nearly 400 dead in Gaza, and many of dead were likely civilians on both sides. On Sunday, the fighting continued in Israeli territory, as did Israeli air strikes in Gaza, and Hamas rocket attacks on Israel. During the attack on Saturday, militants opened fire at an outdoor music festival in Israel, killing an unknown number of civilians.

“We are at war,” Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu said in a national address responding to the attack on Saturday, vowing to “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.” Israel quickly launched a massive wave of retaliatory air strikes in Gaza and called up military reservists.

Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, said Saturday that it conducted “coordinated” attacks on 50 targets.

Militants also captured numerous Israeli soldiers and civilians and moved them to Gaza.

By Sunday, there were also clashes between Palestinian and Israeli forces in the West Bank, and there was fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants along Israel’s border with Lebanon.

President Biden called the attack “appalling” in a statement on Saturday and affirmed the “rock solid and unwavering” support of the U.S. for Israel and its right to defend itself. Numerous other western leaders have also condemned the attack.