Israel warns Gaza residents to flee as they unleash ‘revenge’ attacks – live

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip on Saturday and said the army will turn Hamas sites “into rubble.”

“We will turn all the places in which Hamas is based … all the places Hamas is hiding in, acting from into rubble,” Netanyahu said in a televised address to the nation.
He called on Palestinians in the area to “leave now.”

“This war will take time, it will be difficult. Challenging days are ahead of us,” he said.

Around 100 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been taken hostage by Hamas, Israel’s embassy to the United States has said.

It is the clearest indication of the number of hostages so far, with Israel’s military having said that a “significant number” of hostages have been taken.

Israel has said two hostage situations have beedn “resolved” but the wellbeing of those freed is unclear.

The Israel Defence Forces have said they are still trying to clear Hamas fighters from eight areas in Israel, having reclaimed control over 22 areas infiltrated in the surprise Palestinian border incursion.

Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, also said its fighters are still engaged in fierce clashes in several sites inside Israel, with fighting continuing in several areas bordering the Gaza strip, including Ofakim, Sderot, Yad Mordechai, Kfar Azza, Be’eri, Yatid and Kissufim.

Observers are warning that Gazan civilians will be able to do little to heed warnings from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they should “leave” as Israel relatiates against the surprise Hamas invasion.

“This is an advance warning of the genocide that Israel is planning to commit,” writer Fatima Bhutto argued in a post on X. “Gazans cannot leave, they are blockaded by sea and under a land siege, they cannot cross the border into Egypt. To bombard an occupied population with no ability to flee is a war crime.”

Hamas’s invasion of Israel has explicitly targeted civilians in addition to members of the armed forces.

The militants have seized dozens of hostages from inside of Israel.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip on Saturday and said the army will turn Hamas sites “into rubble.”

“We will turn all the places in which Hamas is based … all the places Hamas is hiding in, acting from into rubble,” Netanyahu said in a televised address to the nation.

He called on Palestinians in the area to “leave now.”

“This war will take time, it will be difficult. Challenging days are ahead of us,” he said.

An Israeli military spokesperson said today morning that two hostage situations had been “resolved,” but did not say whether all the hostages had been rescued alive.

Hamas militants had taken hostages during their surprise attack yesterday as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response. Gun battles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns. Militants occupied a police station in a third town, where Israeli forces struggled until Sunday morning to finally reclaim the building.

On Sunday, Israel was fighting Hamas incursions in eight places, the Israeli military said.

At least 26 Israeli soldiers have been killed in an attack by the Hamas militant group on the country’s south, Israel’s military said today.

The figure is part of a death toll of more than 250 people in the deadliest attack against Israelis in decades.

The former Greece finance minister and economist Yanis Varoufakis called on Israel to “end” its occupation of Palestine.

“The path to ending the tragic loss of innocent lives – both Palestinian and Israeli – begins with one crucial first step: the end of the Israeli occupation and apartheid,” he wrote on Twitter.

Haartez journalist Amir Tibon and his family have been rescued after 12 hours of siege in Kibbutz home by Hamas fighters.

Sharing the news, Esther Solomon, editor-in-chief of the outlet said she was “so relieved” at the news. “Toom many others in Gaza border communities are dead, missing, taken hostage,” she said on X.

Israel’s security forces, and much of the national security world at large, were caught off guard on Saturday when Hamas militants from Gaza launched a surprise attack on Israel.

“This is a colossal Israeli intelligence failure,” intelligence analyst Frank Figliuzzi argued in a post on X. “Even assuming their human sources were double agents, Israel’s technical collection also failed: Hamas surprise attack out of Gaza stuns Israel and leaves hundreds dead in fighting, retaliation.”