Israel retaliates following a terrorist attack by Hamas
The Israeli government responded to Hamas’s unexpected attack, resulting in a death toll exceeding 1,100 and leaving thousands wounded on both sides.
This retaliation came after one of the deadliest incidents in Israeli history, where the Islamist group Hamas killed 700 Israelis and kidnapped dozens more.
Israeli military efforts continued into Monday, October 9, as they worked to neutralize fighters remaining in southern towns and escalated their attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Over 40 hours after Hamas initiated its unprecedented incursion from Gaza, Israeli forces were engaged in ongoing clashes with militants entrenched in multiple locations.
Reportedly, the casualties have surged with at least 700 lives lost in Israel and over 400 fatalities recorded in Gaza.
“The consequences faced by the Gaza Strip will be profound, altering the course of generations,” declared Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in the town of Ofakim, which witnessed casualties and hostage situations.
In southern Israel, Hamas fighters continued battling Israeli security forces for over 24 hours following their unexpected, multi-faceted attack involving rocket barrages and armed groups that seized control of army bases and infiltrated border towns.
“My two young daughters, mere toddlers, aged not even five and three,” lamented Yoni Asher as he recounted watching a video where Palestinian gunmen abducted his wife and their little girls during a visit to her mother’s house.
Uri David revealed during a news conference that he remained on the phone with his two daughters, Tair and Odaya, for half an hour during the attack until he lost contact with them, leaving him uncertain about their wellbeing.
He said,
“I heard shooting, shouting in Arabic, I told them to lie on the ground and hold hands,” he said, breaking down in tears.
Mayyan Zin, a divorced mother of two, received distressing news about her daughters’ abduction when a relative sent her photos from a Telegram group, revealing the girls sitting on mattresses in captivity. Subsequently, she stumbled upon online videos portraying a horrifying scene in her ex-husband’s residence in Nahal Oz: Armed intruders engaged in conversation with him in the living room, his leg injured, while her two frightened daughters, Dafna, 15, and Ella, 8, sobbed nearby. Another video documented the father’s journey across the border into Gaza.
Zin said, “Just bring my daughters home and to their family. All the people.”
Israel’s military announced that it had successfully reclaimed control over the majority of infiltration points along security barriers, neutralized hundreds of assailants, and apprehended dozens more.
Additionally, the military reported the deployment of tens of thousands of soldiers in the vicinity of Gaza, a narrow territory inhabited by 2.3 million Palestinians. Concurrently, preparations for the evacuation of Israelis residing along the frontier were underway.