Israeli security forces are carrying out operations to rescue hostages taken by Palestinian militants from Gaza and clear areas they seized on Saturday.

The military said troops had secured 22 locations in southern Israel but were still sweeping through another eight.

The surprise attack by hundreds of gunmen from Hamas, under the cover of intense rocket fire, has reportedly killed at least 600 people in Israel.

More than 310 people in Gaza have been killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes.

Over 400 Palestinian gunmen have been killed and dozens arrested during the fighting in Israel, according to the Israeli military.

Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night that Israel was going into a “long and difficult war”. He also warned Hamas, which governs Gaza, that its hideouts would be reduced to “rubble”.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said it was on the “verge of a great victory”.
The deadliest day of violence in Israel since the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago began just after dawn on Saturday, which was the Jewish Sabbath and festival of Simchat Torah.

Gunmen cut through the Gaza perimeter fence and crossed into southern Israel on motorbikes, paragliders and by sea.

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman said the militants numbered in the high hundreds, while more than 3,000 rockets were fired towards cities and towns across Israel throughout the day.

“They attacked dozens of Israeli communities and IDF bases and went door to door,” Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said in a briefing on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday night.

“They executed Israeli civilians in cold blood in their homes and then continued to drag into Gaza Israeli civilians and military personnel. I’m talking women, children, elderly, disabled.”

Israel’s health ministry has not confirmed how many people have been killed, but Israeli TV channels reported that the death toll had passed 600. More than 2,000 others have been injured.

Overnight, Israeli security forces rescued many people who had been held hostage – almost 50 were in the dining area of one small community.

At least 10 militants who had taken over the police station in the town of Sderot were killed.

BBC/Adebukola Aluko

Six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Four were killed in a late-night military raid of Jenin refugee camp in which some 30 people were also injured, according to Palestinian medics.

Another young Palestinian man was killed during an Israeli raid in Jericho on Wednesday morning.

The sixth was killed during violent demonstrations on Tuesday evening near the Gaza-Israel separation fence.

There was intense fighting on Tuesday night in the Jenin camp, a stronghold of Palestinian militants, where the Israeli military launched its biggest operation in years in the West Bank back in July.

The military said that its forces exchanged fire with local gunmen and carried out a rare strike using a suicide drone.

While leaving the camp, the military said, an explosive device detonated underneath one of its vehicles, so that those inside had to be rescued. No soldiers were injured.

A video posted on social media appeared to show Israeli gunfire hitting the minaret of a mosque from which shots were being fired.

All four Palestinians killed were men in their 20s, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Palestinian militant groups said three of the dead were their members.

Shortly after the Israeli troops withdrew from the refugee camp, the Palestinian Authority (PA) said that gunmen shot at its compound in Jenin. Militants from the camp accused the PA, which governs parts of the West Bank not under full Israeli control, of failing to protect them.

The bloodshed in Jenin was the latest in an upsurge in violence in the West Bank, where the Israeli military says it has been carrying out counter-terrorism activities over the past year and a half.

Wednesday morning saw a deadly Israeli military raid in Aqabat Jaber refugee camp in Jericho.

The local hospital said that a 19-year-old man who died was shot in the head.

Witnesses said that locals had thrown stones at Israeli soldiers who entered the camp.

The Israeli military said explosive devices were also thrown as its forces carried out an arrest raid.

Tensions now seem to be spreading to Gaza, where a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli forces for the first time during several days of violent protests by the separation fence.

The Israeli military said hundreds of rioters gathered next to the fence and detonated explosive devices, and that its forces responded with “riot disposal means and sniper fire”.

It added that it was aware that a Palestinian had died and that the incident was under review.

BBC/Adebukola Aluko

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