A request that this article title be changed to 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel is under discussion. Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed. |
2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel | |||||||
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Part of the Israel–Hamas war | |||||||
Satellite view of widespread fires in Israel around the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023[6] | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Israel[1] | |||||||
Units involved | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
Al-Qassam Brigades: ~3,000 entered Israel[a] |
Israeli Defence Forces: 600 soldiers[16] 12 tanks[16] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
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On 7 October 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups named the attacks Operation Al-Aqsa Flood (or Deluge; Arabic: عملية طوفان الأقصى, romanized: ʿamaliyyat ṭūfān al-ʾAqṣā, usually romanised as "Tufan Al-Aqsa" or "Toofan Al-Aqsa"),[1] while in Israel they are referred to as Black Saturday (Hebrew: השבת השחורה)[20] or the Simchat Torah Massacre (הטבח בשמחת תורה),[21] and internationally as the 7 October attack.[22][23][24] The attacks initiated the ongoing Israel–Hamas war.
The attacks began early on 7 October with a barrage of at least 3,000 rockets launched against Israel and vehicle-transported and powered paraglider incursions into Israel.[25][26] Hamas fighters breached the Gaza–Israel barrier, attacking military bases and massacring civilians in 21 communities, including Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, NetivHaasara, and Alumim. 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded while attending the Nova music festival.[27][28] The IDF estimated that about 3,000 militants invaded southern Israel, with additional waves of Gaza citizens entering through the breached fences later in the day.[29] In total the attackers killed 1,139 people:[f] 695 Israeli civilians (including 38 children),[34] 71 foreign nationals, and 373 members of the security forces.[g][35] About 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip, including 30 children, with the stated goal to force Israel to exchange them for imprisoned Palestinians, including women and children.[36][37][38][39] Many cases of rape and sexual assault reportedly occurred, but Hamas officials denied the involvement of their fighters.[40][41][42][43]
Hamas said its attack was in response to the continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, rising Israeli settler violence, and recent escalations.[44][45][46]
At least 44 countries denounced the attack as terrorism, while some Arab and Muslim countries blamed Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories as the root cause of the attack.[47][48][49] The day was labeled the bloodiest in Israel's history and the deadliest for Jews since the Holocaust.[50][51][52][53] Some have called the attack a genocidal massacre against Israelis.[54][55][56]
On Saturday, 7 October — a Jewish sabbath day, the end of the weeklong Jewish festival of Sukkot, and a day after the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War — Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups launched Operation al-Aqsa Flood, a coordinated assault consisting of land and air attacks into multiple border areas of Israel.
At 06:30 on the morning of 7 October 2023, Hamas launched "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood" with more than 5,000 rockets reportedly fired towards Israel from multiple locations in Gaza, as well as ground operation into Israel.
On Saturday, 7 October...Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups launched Operation al-Aqsa Flood, a coordinated assault consisting of land and air attacks into multiple border areas of Israel.
ynet
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Golani soldiers from the 51st and 13th battalions fought along 30km of the border at numerous points and took heavy casualties between October 7 and 9.
kerem
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).shinbet
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).cas2,2
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).In the months before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian Hamas militants who run the Gaza Strip, Hochstein said the United States was exploring the possibility of resolving the longstanding border dispute between Lebanon and Israel.
Analysts said other objectives of the 7 October attacks probably included halting efforts to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, further undermining the Palestinian Authority, distracting from Hamas's failure to deliver services or break the blockade of Gaza, and provoking a violent reaction from Israel that would mobilise its own supporters in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere.
YnetFF
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Cook121215
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).YA240112
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Ynet240111
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).By cross-referencing testimonies given to police, published interviews with witnesses, and photo and video footage taken by survivors and first responders, the Guardian is aware of at least six sexual assaults for which multiple corroborating pieces of evidence exist. Two of those victims, who were murdered, were aged under 18.
At least seven women who were killed were also raped in the attack, according to Prof Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a legal scholar and international women's rights advocate, from her examination of evidence so far. The New York Times and NBC have both identified more than 30 killed women and girls whose bodies bear signs of abuse, such as bloodied genitals and missing clothes, and according to the Israeli welfare ministry, five women and one man have come forward seeking help for sexual abuse over the past few months.
NYTrapeinvestigation
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Such accounts given to The Associated Press, along with first assessments by an Israeli rights group, show that sexual assault was part of an atrocities-filled rampage by Hamas and other Gaza militants who killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 240 hostages that day.
What I can say with a really high degree of certainty is that it wasn't a few cases. It wasn't here and there, or only on one occasion. There were many cases of different gender-based and sexual violence, and they were in the kibbutzim and in the Nova music festival: the most extreme gang rapes, mutilation of body parts, putting objects into women's bodies, and having women paraded like trophies when they were taken into Gaza.
aj7oct-invasion
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).International leaders condemned an unprecedented incursion by Palestinian militants into southern Israel, while governments across the Middle East called for restraint after an attack that shook the Israeli security establishment. [...] The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said his organisation would send support to Israel. 'Over the coming days the Department of Defense will work to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from indiscriminate violence and terrorism,' he said.
:1
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).The most searing historical comparison predates Israel's founding. Not all of Hamas's victims were Israeli, and not all of the Israeli dead were Jewish. But under reasonable assumptions about the ethnic make-up of those killed in this and previous attacks, the last time before October 7th that this many Jews were murdered on a single day was during the Holocaust.
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was invoked but never defined (see the help page).:10
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).:11
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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