Israel-Palestine|Reactions to the attacks

 

Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip. Adel Hana / AP 

Israel-Palestine|Reactions to the attacks  

Israel cuts off electricity to Gaza after the attack  

 

Israel will cut the electricity to the Gaza Strip, the country's energy minister Israel Katz writes on X. 

 

"I signed an order to the electricity company to stop supplying the Gaza Strip with electricity. What has been will no longer be.” 

 

Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands injured after terrorist-branded Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel. Israel has responded with airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.  

 

Demolished building on the Gaza Strip. Fatima Shbair / AP 

 

Close to 500 dead on both sides after Hamas wave of attacks - thousands injured  

 

Death toll rises after Hamas rocket attacks on Israel. According to the emergency services, at least 250 people have lost their lives in Israel and at least 1,100 have been injured, according to local media according to Sky News.  

 

According to the latest update from Palestinian authorities, 232 people have been killed in Israel's counterattack. The number of injured is said to exceed 1,600.  

 

During the morning, the terror-branded Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip. The attack took place on the day 50 years after the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Israel, caught off guard, has responded with a series of airstrikes. 

 

Hamas says it has launched a "full-scale war" against Israel, and that it will not stop until it achieves "victory, freedom and independence". 

 

Israel has responded by mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists. 

 

- We are at war - and we will win, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  

 

A large number of Hamas men have stormed the border between Gaza and Israel, and on Saturday fighting took place in over 20 locations. Both Hamas and Israel

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Netanyahu. Abir Sultan / AP 

 

Reactions to the attacks 

Netanyahu opens to form an emergency government  

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invited opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz to form an emergency government, his Likud party announced, according to Reuters.  

 

This after Lapid earlier in the evening took the initiative to do so, according to Sky News. 

 

- The rocket attacks on innocent civilians are unceasing. The whole world must stand by Israel as we defend ourselves against terror, he said. 

 

Earlier in the day, Netanyahu sat in a crisis meeting with the security authorities. 

 

UN Security Council. John Minchillo / AP  

 

The UN Security Council is holding a crisis meeting on Sunday  

 

The UN Security Council will hold a crisis meeting on Sunday at 21:00, Swedish time, reports AFP. 

 

On the agenda is "the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestine issue", according to a statement from the council.  

 

It takes place after the greatly escalated violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories that follows the wave of attacks by Hamas during the morning.

Pictures from the day. AP 

 

Israel-Palestine|Voices on the conflict 

Analysis: Changes everything – now there is no turning back 

 

It is not surprising that the violence between Hamas and Israel flares up again - but the way Hamas started it changes everything, and now there is no turning back, writes Sigurd Falkenberg Mikkelsen in an analysis for NRK.  

 

Hundreds of armed men destroyed the border fences and stormed into Israel, where they opened fire on and captured both soldiers and civilians – something that had never happened before, he continues. 

 

"It is difficult to overestimate the significance of these images of civilian Israeli women and men being forcibly brought into Gaza." 

 

Many analysts underline how Israel was caught off guard by the attack, including The Guardian's Peter Beaumont.  

 

"Hamas' surprise attack on Israel, on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, is an intelligence blunder that will go down in history," he writes.  

 

A big danger now is that Iran also attacks from the north via its extended arm Hezbollah in Lebanon, which would mean a two-front war for Israel - but that is far from certain, writes Olle Lönnaeus for Sydsvenskan. 

 

"Whatever happens, we know one thing for sure: Israel will strike back with its iron fist against Gaza - where ordinary peaceful Palestinians will also pay a sky-high price in blood."

 

 

Israeli soldiers. AP 

 

Israel-Palestine|The attacks 

Israel's army: Fighting hundreds of Hamas men  

 

The Israeli Defense Force IDF is still fighting hundreds of Hamas fighters in several parts of the country on Saturday evening, spokesman Richard Hecht said according to AFP. 

 

- There are still 22 places where we collide with terrorists who entered Israel from the land, the sea and the air, he says, adding that Hamas' land invasion has been "robust". 

 

Furthermore, Hecht says that there are "serious hostage situations" in the two small communities of Be'eri and Ofaqim, both of which are close to the Gaza Strip.  

 

Over 3,000 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza during Saturday, he continues.  

 

The IDF, which has mobilized tens of thousands of reservists, has stated that they are calling up as many as necessary - if it turns out to be hundreds of thousands.