Israeli military says fighting continues in 22 of its southern areas

The Israeli military says fighting is continuing in 22 locations in southern Israel 12 hours after Hamas fighters carried out a surprise infiltration.

In a statement on Saturday, the army's chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said “there is no community in southern Israel where we do not have forces.” He said Israel has regained control in some communities but the army is still conducting scans to make sure they are safe.

Hagari also confirmed ongoing hostage situations in two towns — Ofakim and Beeri.

“There are special forces there with senior commanders and live fire fights are going on there,” he said.

Hagari said that Israel was striking targets in Gaza from the air and that ground operations were imminent. He did not elaborate but said an additional four divisions of troops, as well as tanks, were being deployed to the already heavily fortified area.

Threat of a wider conflict

Israel’s national rescue service said at least 70 people were killed and hundreds wounded, making it the deadliest attack in Israel in years. An unknown number of Israeli soldiers and civilians were also taken hostage and moved into Gaza, an enormously sensitive issue for Israel.

At least 198 people in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s retaliation and at least 1,610 wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said.

The strength, sophistication and timing of the Hamas attack shocked Israelis. Hamas fighters used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing the long-blockaded Mediterranean territory, then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speed boats on the coast.

Bodies of dead Israeli civilians and Hamas fighters were seen on streets of Israeli towns. Associated Press photos showed an abducted elderly Israeli woman surrounded by gunmen being brought back into Gaza on a golf cart and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle.

Images on social media appeared to show fighters parading what seemed to be captured Israeli military vehicles through Gaza streets.

The assault threatened to spiral into a greater conflict, mirroring previous conflicts between Israel and the Hamas fighters ruling Gaza that brought widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns.

“We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass army mobilisation. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.”

“The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” he added, promising that Israel would “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.”

'Enough is enough'

The leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli military raids inside the occupied West Bank cities over the past year, military raids on Al Aqsa Mosque — the third holiest site in Islam — increasing attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and growth of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message. He said the morning attack was only the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians living in occupied east Jerusalem and northern Israel to join the fight. “Today the people are regaining their revolution.”

At a meeting of top security officials Saturday, Netanyahu said the first priority was to “cleanse" southern Israel of infiltrators, followed by a greater retaliation in Gaza.

The serious incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, aiming to take back Israeli-occupied territories.