Stunned Israelis have described seeing bodies in the streets and Hamas fighters roaming outside their homes as they took shelter during an unprecedented attack by the militant group in southern Israel on Saturday.
WARNING: This story contains images and details some people may find distressing.
Key points:
- Hamas militants attacked settlements in southern Israel for hours on Saturday, taking civilian hostages back to Gaza
- Thousands of Israelis attending a music festival near Re’im also came under fire, with many killed and some taken captive
- Hamas says the attack was a response to Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian territories
Even the residents of communities near the Gaza Strip, who have grown used to the wail of air-raid sirens, described Saturday’s ground assault — with militants entering their communities in pick-up trucks, on boats, and by hang-gliders — as a “nightmare” come true.
Jehan Berman, a 42-year-old man living in the small community of Avshalom near Gaza, said it took eight hours for the Israeli military to arrive in his settlement and start fending off Hamas fighters.
“This was always the nightmare. We told ourselves that one day, the terrorists will come inside here,” he said.
Hamas’s surprise attack came after weeks of heightened tensions along the Gaza border, and heavy fighting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Salah Arouri, an exiled Hamas leader, said the attack was a response to “the crimes of the occupation”, including Israeli incursions at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
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Thousands attacked at music festival
A desert rave attended by thousands of Israelis came under attack by Hamas militants who had crossed the border.
Witnesses told Israeli media that the militants sprayed bullets into the crowd of revellers, who just moments earlier had been dancing at the Nova Festival near the Israeli kibbutz, or settlement, of Re’im.
“The music stopped and there was a rocket siren,” a young woman named Ortal told Israel’s N12 News.
“Suddenly, out of nowhere, they started shooting.”
Footage posted on social media showed dozens of people running through fields and along a road, escaping militants as gun shots were heard.
Another video posted to social media showed a couple who attended the festival being captured by militants.
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The man, identified by his brother as Avinatan Or, is shown being led away on foot by men as his partner, Noa Argamani, is driven away by two men on a motorbike.
She screams and reaches toward her partner as she is driven away.
Esther Borochov, who fled the outdoor festival, told Reuters she survived by playing dead in a car after the driver, who had been trying to help her escape, was shot point blank.
“I couldn’t move my legs,” she said from hospital.
“Soldiers came and took us away to the bushes.”
Footage shows captives taken into Gaza
Palestinian militant groups circulated footage on social media showing what they said were captured Israeli soldiers and civilians being driven into Gaza, as well as hostages being held by more fighters inside Israel.
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One video shows a young Israeli woman stumbling out of the boot of a black Jeep, bleeding from the head and with her hands tied behind her back.
A man waving a gun in the air grabs her by the hair and pushes her into the vehicle’s back seat.
One Associated Press photo shows an abducted elderly Israeli woman being driven into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen.
Another shows a woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle.
AP journalists witnessed four people being taken from the kibbutz of Kfar Aza, including two women.
Fighting continued throughout the day
In the southern Israeli town of Sderot, one resident reported seeing multiple bodies and bullet-scarred vehicles where groups of Hamas gunmen were still fighting Israeli troops on Saturday afternoon.
“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,” the resident said.
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Israel’s ambulance service said its crews were unable to reach the wounded in towns where fighting was ongoing.
An ambulance was also attacked, the Magen David Adom medical service said. One crew member was reportedly killed.
Israeli TV stations carried telephone calls from terrified residents of towns and kibbutz, speaking even as gunmen were trying to break into their shelters.
A woman identified as Ella said she had barricaded herself in a bomb shelter for hours in the Be’eri kibbutz, where there were reports of 50 Israelis being held hostage by Hamas.
“We can hear a lot of gunfire, we were told that terrorists are in the dining hall, we can hear a lot of shooting,” she told N12 News in a live interview.
“I’ve lost contact with my family. I know my father has been kidnapped … no-one is telling us what’s going on. I don’t know if my mother is alive.”
In the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, just four kilometres from the Gaza Strip, terrified residents huddling indoors could hear constant gunfire echoing off buildings as firefights continued.
“With rockets we somehow feel safer, knowing that we have the Iron Dome [missile defence system] and our safe rooms,” said Mirjam Reijnen, a 42-year-old volunteer firefighter and mother of three.
“But knowing that terrorists are walking around communities is a different kind of fear.”
Wires/ABC