Israel tells citizens to shelter as 'aircraft' cross from Lebanon
Israel tells citizens to shelter as ‘hostile aircraft’ cross border from Lebanon with reports ‘terrorists on paragliders’ have landed in country’s north – after rockets slammed into hospital in southern city
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Israel told citizens to seek shelter as ‘hostile aircraft’ crossed the country’s northern border with Lebanon this evening, amid reports of ‘terrorists on paragliders’.
As rocket sirens were activated in the region, the country’s army said a suspected ‘aerial infiltration from Lebanon’ had been detected.
The army’s Home Front Command asked residents of the cities of Beit Shean, Safed and Tiberias to shelter ‘until further notice’ fearing a ‘large-scale attack’.
The military did not specify the kind of aircraft, but Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Palestinian militants are known to have drones and gliders.
On Saturday, several Hamas gunman entered Israel on motorised gliders as part of a unprecedented three-pronged assault from land, air and see on the country and shot dead hundreds of civilians dead in towns and cities around Gaza.
In its reporting on the latest incursion this evening, the Jerusalem Post said some targets were hit with drones. The publication also said there have been reports of ‘terrorists on paragliders landing in northern Israel’.
The warning came shortly after Hamas claimed it had fired a long-range missile at Haifa, a city in northern Israel that sits 90 miles north of Gaza.
Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamist group, claimed the attack and said the missile was a R160 rocket – a Chinese designed, Syrian made rocket that has been used in attacks on cities including Jerusalem.
The missile was part of a fresh wave of Hamas rocket attacks in Israel this afternoon, which destroyed a children’s hospital and a supermarket.
Israel told citizens to seek shelter as ‘hostile aircraft’ crossed the country’s northern border with Lebanon this evening, amid reports of ‘terrorists on paragliders’. Pictured: Rockets are fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, October 11
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu shared this picture of a child’s blood-soaked bed and said the images proved Hamas is ‘worse than ISIS’
An Israeli woman takes cover from the incoming rocket fire in the city of Ashkelon, southern Israel
The remains of a supermarket which was struck by Hamas rocket attacks this afternoon
A survivor, surrounded by shattered glass and burned-out cars, inspects the debris
A couple crouches behind a wall as sirens blare to mark incoming rocket fire
Smoke billows from a burning building after the rocket attacks which targeted multiple cities across Israel
Shocking footage from the southern city of Ashkelon shows the Barzilai Medical Centre in ruins with the children’s wing taking a direct hit.
Pictures also show the remains of a supermarket in the city, surrounded by debris and marked by a large crater.
The strikes were among many launched by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who targeted multiple locations across the country.
News of the latest attack came after Hamas launched a fresh wave of rocket attacks in Israel this afternoon, destroying a children’s hospital and a supermarket.
Shocking footage from the southern city of Ashkelon shows the Barzilai Medical Centre in ruins with the children’s wing taking a direct hit.
Pictures also show the remains of a supermarket in the city, surrounded by debris and marked by a large crater.
The strikes were among many launched by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who targeted multiple locations across the country.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later shared a harrowing image of a child’s bed with its sheets soaked in blood, along with the caption: ‘Hamas is worse than ISIS.’
Israeli airstrikes demolished entire Palestinian neighbourhoods on Wednesday as hospitals struggled to treat the injured with dwindling medical supplies.
This afternoon Gaza’s two million residents lost electricity as the enclave’s sole power plant ran out of fuel and shut down.
The outage deepens the crisis inside the 140-square-mile territory, with Israeli forces lining up on the border ahead of a planned invasion.
The war has claimed at least 2,200 lives on both sides and is only expected to escalate further from this point. Humanitarian groups have pleaded for the creation of aid corridors ahead of the likely Israeli assault.
Israelis inspect the damage after a street was hit in Ashkelon
Shattered glass and window panes litter the street after a series of rocket attacks
An Israeli army self-propelled howitzer fires rounds near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on October 11
A mourner weeps while burying the body of a Palestinian child in Khan Younis
Destruction from Israeli aerial bombardment is seen in Gaza City
As fears mounted inside the enclave of an imminent assault, an Israeli defence official vowed that Gaza will become a ‘tent city’ with every building razed.
In the early hours, Israeli forces conducted 250 airstrikes in just one hour across northern and eastern parts of the Gaza strip in revenge for Hamas’ terror attacks.
Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman Jonathan Conricus said they are sending ‘infantry, armoured soldiers, artillery corps’, plus 300,000 reservists ‘close to the Gaza Strip to execute the mission that we have been given by the Israeli government’.
Conricus added: ‘That is to make sure that Hamas at the end of this war won’t have any military capabilities by which they can threaten or kill Israeli civilians.’
In another sign that an attack is imminent, Israeli officials have told residents living close to the border with Gaza to prepare to remain in shelters for 72 hours, and to therefore stock up on food and water. Some have begun to evacuate.
Clashes between Israeli forces and Hamas have continued around the border, with fierce gun fighting between Israeli Border Guards and Hamas attackers in the southern cities of Sderot and Ashkelon into this morning.
A series of rocket salvos from Gaza also hit Sderot Wednesday morning, injuring at least one civilian and damaging five buildings.
Three Israeli soldiers were killed in a confrontation with ‘terrorist infiltrators’ to the north on the frontier with Lebanon, where Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters and Lebanon’s Hezbollah had launched a smattering of attacks and triggered air raid sirens with more rockets.
On Saturday, the armed wing of Hamas streamed across the Gaza border fence and launched a ruthless attack on unsuspecting soldiers and civilians in what EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has described as an ‘act of war’.
At least 169 Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting with Hamas, the army said on Wednesday. ‘As of this morning, we’ve informed the families of 169 fallen IDF soldiers,’ military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters.
In Israel, the death toll from Saturday’s assault rose to 1,200 – making it the deadliest attack in the country’s 75-year history, while Gaza officials reported more than 900 people killed as Israel pounded the territory with air strikes.
Survivors stand amid the debris and destruction near the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City
Smoke billows from burned-out buildings after Israeli air strikes hit Gaza City today
Covered in ash, an injured Palestinian boy sits in an ambulance in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers fire artillery towards Gaza Strip from the border
A salvo of rockets is fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza towards Israel as the war’s death toll passes 3,000
Israeli soldiers take a break as they hold their position along the Israel-Gaza border
As dawn broke on Wednesday, more airstrikes were launched on Gaza
Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the Sousi Mosque in Gaza City
Palestinians pick through the rubble in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes
Survivors dig through the remains of market stalls and apartment blocks after Israeli airstrikes in Khan Yunis on Tuesday
Smoke from Israeli bombardment is pictured over the Gaza City seaport on October 11, 2023
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike that has been going on for five days in Gaza City, Gaza on October 11, 2023. Palestinian Foreign Ministry claimed that Israel used phosphorus bombs in its attacks on populated areas in Gaza
One key target was the al-Furqan neighborhood – so named after a mosque in the area – which defense officials said is a ‘nest of terror’ used by Hamas to launch attacks against Israel.
Israel seeks ‘a new reality’ with terrorism eradicated as Netanyahu condemns ‘savagery not seen since the Holocaust’ – but EU accuses Jewish state of breaking international laws by cutting off food and water to Gaza
Hamas said two of its top officials had been killed, while Israel’s military said the bodies of roughly 1,500 Hamas infiltrators had been found.
Swathes of the densely-populated Gaza have already been reduced to rubble, photos emerging on Tuesday showed.
Images later emerged appearing to show trails of phosphorus munitions being used over Gaza – something Palestinian sources had alleged. The use of such weapons in civilian areas is considered a war crime.
Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, said he has ‘released all restraints’ on the troops in their fight against Hamas.
‘Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be,’ he said, speaking to soldiers near the Gaza fence.
‘We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground. We’ve been controlling the area since Day Two and we are on the offensive. It will only intensify.’
Gallant promised to show no mercy to the terrorists.
‘Whoever comes to decapitate, murder women, Holocaust survivors — we will eliminate him at the height of our power and without compromise.’
Fears of a regional conflagration have surged ahead of an expected Israeli ground incursion into Gaza.
Dozens were killed and hundreds wounded as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with hundreds of air strikes overnight, a Hamas government official said Wednesday.
The strikes destroyed several buildings of the Hamas-linked Islamic University in Gaza City, a university official said.
The Israeli military confirmed it had hit dozens of Hamas targets during the night.
It said fighter jets destroyed ‘advanced detection systems’ that Hamas used to spot military aircraft.
They also hit 80 Hamas targets in the Beit Hanoun area of the northeastern Gaza Strip, including two bank branches used by the Islamist group to ‘fund terrorism’ in the enclave, the military said.
In response to Saturday’s attack, Israel imposed a ‘total siege’ on Gaza, suspending supplies of food, water, electricity and fuel to the already blockaded enclave.
Today’s airstrikes came as the barbarity of Hamas’ attacks on Israel was becoming apparent, with ever-more savage behavior being described.
At the Be’eri kibbutz, 100 people – 10 percent of the population – were murdered.
David Ben Zion, Deputy Commander of Unit 71, told i24News that he had seen victims shot dead in their beds.
David Ben Zion, Deputy Commander of Unit 71, told i24News that he had seen victims decapitated, including children
Gunshots and blood stains are seen on a door and walls of a house where civilians were killed days earlier in an attack by Hamas on this kibbutz near the border with Gaza on Tuesday
A baby’s seat and child’s dress is seen covered in blood in the aftermath of a Hamas attack
Hamas terrorists gunned down entire families in their homes in a small kibbutz in Israel, Israeli soldiers have claimed
Israeli soldiers remove the body of a compatriot, killed during an attack by Hamas terrorists in Kfar Aza, on Tuesday
How Israel will carry out the siege of Gaza: With ground assault hours away, expert reveals how troops will be faced with deadly street-to-street battles at the risk of high casualties, combined with air power and artillery
‘We went door after door, we killed a lot of the terrorists,’ he said.
‘We are stronger than them. They are aggressive, they are very bad… But we are stronger than them.’
Harrowing images from the scene at Kfar Aza kibbutz showed a baby’s cot covered with blood; her small bloodied dress lying next to it.
The Israeli soldiers were seen comforting each other after witnessing such horrors, including the bodies of entire families who were gunned down in their beds.
‘You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers, in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms and how the terrorist kills them,’ said Israeli Major General Itai Veruv.
‘It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. It’s a massacre, it’s a terror activity.
‘It is something that I never saw in my life. It’s something that we used to imagine from our grandfathers, grandmothers in the pogrom in Europe and other places. It’s not something that happens in new history.’
Veruv said his soldiers spent ‘about 48 hours’ fighting ‘waves and waves of terrorists’ on roads and in neighboring communities.
Joe Biden called it ‘an act of sheer evil’, and said it was reminiscent of ‘the worst rampages of ISIS.’
U.S. President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, makes remarks after speaking by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Biden was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and senior security officials for a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in the Situation Room before delivering his speech
People mourn at the graveside of Eden Guez, who was killed a festival that was attacked by Hamas gunmen that left at least 260 people dead, at her funeral in Ashkelon, in southern Israel
He pledged that the US would make sure Israel has the tools it needs to defend itself: he has dispatched the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford and five guided-missile cruisers and destroyers to the scene, and they arrived on Tuesday.
Biden said the U.S. has ‘enhanced our military force posture’ in the region and is surging military assistance to Israel.
Ruthless Hamas gunmen calmly raid family fridge after shooting brave pet dog… then torch the home in Israeli kibbutz where 108 bodies were found amid slaughter
Biden also spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, on Tuesday, for the third time.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 900 people have been killed and 4,600 wounded in the crowded coastal enclave.
Aid agencies were urging Israel to open humanitarian corridors to allow in food and medical supplies.
But Israel said it will cut off water, electricity, food and fuel to the territory in a ‘total siege’.
After Israel imposed its blockade, European Union foreign ministers joined calls for humanitarian corridors for those trying to flee.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said such sieges are prohibited under international humanitarian law.
Medical supplies, including oxygen, were running low at Gaza’s overwhelmed Al-Shifa hospital, said Mohammed Ghonim, a doctor in the emergency room.
Palestinian media said Israeli airstrikes also hit homes in Gaza City, the southern city of Khan Younis and in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
One home struck belonged to the father of Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas’ armed wing in Gaza, reports said. Deif’s brother and other family members were killed, according to the reports.
Residents appealing for help on social media said many buildings had collapsed, sometimes trapping as many as 50 people inside with rescue workers unable to reach them.
Rockets fired from the Gaza City (R) being intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense missile system (L) on Tuesday
Rockets fired from Gaza are seen being intercepted by the Iron Dome protection system
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip overnight on Tuesday
The United Nations said more than 180,000 Gazans had been made homeless, many huddling on streets or in schools.
At the morgue in Gaza’s Khan Younis hospital, bodies lay on the ground on stretchers with names written on their bellies. Medics called for relatives to pick up bodies quickly because there was no more space for the dead.
A municipal building was hit while being used as an emergency shelter. Survivors there spoke of many dead.
More than 250,000 people have fled their homes in Gaza, the U.N. said, the most since a 2014 air and ground offensive by Israel uprooted about 400,000. The vast majority are sheltering in schools run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Damage to three water and sanitation sites has cut off services to 400,000 people, the U.N. said.
The U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO) said that supplies it had pre-positioned for seven hospitals in Gaza have already run out amid the flood of wounded. The head of the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said surgical equipment, antibiotics, fuel and other supplies were running out at two hospitals it runs in Gaza.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said Tuesday it was targeting food help for some 800,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank following the outbreak of more violence.
The WFP is appealing for $17.3 million in the next four weeks to address the ‘critical situation’ in the Palestinian territories, and also echoed a call by the WHO for a humanitarian corridor to provide aid to Gaza.
‘Distributions are ongoing daily for displaced people in shelters in Gaza, amid concerns that the city is running out of critical resources like food, water, and electricity, with damaged infrastructure severely impeding both food production and distribution networks,’ it said.
It is also beginning to distribute cash-based transfers to 164,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank, electronic vouchers which can be redeemed for food in local shops, it said – even while expressing fears that local supplies are running out.
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