Photo Credit: Dudu Greenspan/Flash90
Firefighters try to put out burning cars in Be'er Sheva, October 7, 2023.

This report will be updated frequently.

Israelis from the Gaza Strip to Ra’anana were awakened by sirens at 6:29 am on Shabbat morning, Simchat Torah, as Hamas fired an unprecedented number of rockets at dozens of targets, including Rishon L’Tzion and Tel Aviv. It is estimated that at least 3,000 rockets were fired in a span of a few hours, and thousands more throughout the day and into the evening.

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As of 10 pm Saturday night, Israel’s Health Ministry announced that at least 1,452 Israelis were injured, including 18 in critical condition and 267 in moderate-to-serious condition. Tragically, at least 300 Israelis were confirmed dead, including 20 Israeli police officers who were killed inside the Sderot Police Station held by Hamas terrorists. Israeli media reported late Saturday night that instructions were given to blow up the police station where Hamas terrorists were holed up.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant extended the “emergency security situation” status to the entire State of Israel on Saturday night, which enables the Home Front Command to restrict gatherings across the country.

New Rockets from Hamas
Hamas was using new, short-distance rockets that carry up to 200 kg of explosives, and fired them in dense waves that overwhelmed the Iron Dome systems. Soon enough, buildings and cars across Israel’s south, including Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beit Dagan, Ramle and elsewhere, caught fire, as did many parked cars.

This was phase one in a well-planned Hamas attack. Under the cover of the rockets, an estimated 200 Hamas terrorists broke through the border fence and rode into Israel on Toyota pickup trucks armed with machine guns, and on motorcycles with one terrorist riding and another shooting bursts of automatic fire.

22 Jewish Communities Invaded
The terrorists invaded and in some cases occupied 22 settlements in the Gaza envelope, where they walked from one home to another, knocked on doors, and killed whole families.

In cases where the residents hid in their hermetically sealed bomb shelters, the terrorists set those homes on fire.

For many hours, the residents of several kibbutzim were on the phone with media outlets, begging for the security forces to save them, but it took the army more than four hours to organize a response. As of Saturday night, Israeli forces are engaged in battle at 22 settlements.

By 10:30 pm Saturday night, the IDF had announced that it had restored control over most of the settlements invaded by the terrorists, including Sufa, Kerem Shalom, Nirim, Netiv Ha’Asara, Nir Oz, Nachal Oz, Holit, Nir Am, Nir Yitzhak and others.

Hamas War Crimes
The terrorists surrounded a nature party in the woods in the south and began firing at the hundreds of young people who at first couldn’t hear the fire over the music. A panic quickly ensued and the frightened and disoriented youth began fleeing for their lives, and many were cut down by the terrorists’ fire.

The terrorists began to kidnap Israeli citizens, including children, women, men, and many soldiers who were captured, including the crew of a tank that was set on fire.

The social networks were swarming with horrid videos of terrorists pulling the bodies of dead Israeli motorists from their cars.

The terrorists even kidnapped two elderly women who appeared to be in a state of dementia and rode with them on the streets of Gaza.

Israeli planes started hammering Gaza around 8 am, and by noon time had dumped a reported 16 tons of explosives. This time, it appears that the IAF has abandoned its humane “knock on the roof” policy and just took down buildings, including two skyscrapers with Hamas offices.

By Saturday night, IDF warplanes had destroyed two major Hamas commander centers in Gaza City skyscrapers used by senior terrorist operatives. Among the command centers that were destroyed was the Hamas intelligence headquarters, weapons production offices and those used by the Hamas General Security Apparatus.

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David Israel
David writes news at JewishPress.com.

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