Palestinian group Hamas unleashed horror on Israeli civilians with their surprise attacks last week. The three-pronged attack from land, sea and even air through rockets targeted Israeli civilian and military establishments. 

The Israel Defence Force (IDF) released raw GoPro First-Person View (FPV) footage of an armed Hamas operative ambushing an Israeli check post and attacking Israelis with their assault rifles before being gunned down by the security forces.

Disturbing Visuals Below. Viewer Discretion Is Advised

The 3-minute-long horrifying video of the Hamas assault shows several operatives on bikes and pick-up trucks carrying rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) with Kalashnikovs slung on their shoulders and heading towards the Gaza-Israel border wall. 

Trigger Warning

RAW FOOTAGE: Hamas jihadists squad invasion and killing spree of an innocent Israeli community.

The filmed terrorist was neutralized by Israeli security forces. pic.twitter.com/4sKuxl9uRq

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 15, 2023

The operatives in a squad formation crossed the border fencing to enter Israel and ambush Israeli forces with RPGs and assault rifles. They then moved to a civilian area and went on a shooting spree, indiscriminately aiming at houses and even firing on the tyre of an ambulance parked in the area. 

The operatives killed an Israeli who was in the house and then moved forward after reloading their gun with a new magazine and breaking into a house. When the gunmen entered the house, a phone on the dining table was still unlocked and lights were on, the Hamas gunmen with their Kalshnikovs searched the entire house for people but found no one. 

The ambush by the Hamas operative ended with his death after the Israeli security forces counter-attacked and shot him dead from a concealed place. Howling and screaming in pain, the man was on the ground after being hit. 

Israel’s Planned Ground Assault

The surprise terror attacks from Hamas are meeting a brutal counter-offensive from Israel on Gaza. The Israeli forces earlier gave a deadline to over a million Gazans to flee south to safety before a planned ground assault on north Gaza is launched. Israel’s offensive has raised concerns about a serious humanitarian crisis that may unfold in Gaza with the ground assault. 

Israel has claimed that Hamas is not letting Gazans flee to safety and using them as human shields against Israeli counter-attack. The Israeli military raised the figure to 199 people confirmed to have been kidnapped by Hamas, adding it would refrain from striking two roads in the Gaza Strip marked for residents to move south and out of the way of a possible ground offensive.

The continuous bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 2,670 people, including over 700 children. Over 1,400 Israelis are dead and hundreds kidnapped since the horrifying attack.

New York:

At Columbia University on Thursday, two groups of hundreds of students tensely faced each other in dueling pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while university officials blocked public access to the New York City campus as a safety measure.

Supporters of Palestinians, many of whom wore face masks to hide their identities, held signs in a grassy area near a library that read “Free Palestine” and “To Exist is to Resist.” About 100 feet (30 meters) away, students backing Israel silently held up posters with the faces of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas.

After the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ weekend attack on Israel, Israel has bombarded and laid siege to the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas, and plans a ground invasion. The Israeli death toll had risen to more than 1,300, according to public broadcaster Kan. Gaza authorities said more than 1,500 Palestinians had been killed.

Amid the growing conflict, tensions between students on opposite sides of the issue have boiled over on some U.S. college campuses.

Statements by student groups supporting Palestinians have prompted outrage and fear among Jews and, in some cases, wider rebuke from public officials and corporations. There have been reports of harassment and assaults of both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students, deepening grief and putting students of all political stripes on high alert.

“Jewish students are afraid,” said David Hidary, a 20-year-old physics major, who attended the Columbia protest with an Israeli flag draped over his shoulders.

In a sign of the tensions, some counter-protesters at Columbia shouted angrily at the pro-Palestinian group. During a moment of silence for Palestinian victims, an opposing protester yelled out that they should be honoring children murdered by Hamas.

Several masked speakers at the pro-Palestine rally declined to reveal their full names, with one saying they did not feel safe enough on campus to disclose their identity. Many faulted the university for not expressing more support for Palestinian students and the people of Gaza.

The campus climate may only become more tense in coming days. Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas in retribution for the deadliest attack by Palestinian militants in Israeli history.

Meanwhile, college administrators are grappling with how to keep campuses secure and denounce the violence in the Middle East without wading too deeply into a supercharged political and historical dispute that affects Jewish and Palestinian students personally.

‘DAY OF RESISTANCE’ CALLED

A controversy at Harvard University on Monday was one of the first to make headlines. Prominent alumni lambasted a joint student group statement calling Israel “entirely responsible” for the war. The university president later clarified that the groups did not represent the school’s position.

On Tuesday, the names and personal information of students allegedly involved were posted online and on Wednesday a billboard truck displaying that information was driven around campus, the Harvard Crimson newspaper reported. Some critics of the pro-Palestinian letter responded by denouncing the intimidation of students, the newspaper said.

Tensions sparked anew at campuses on Thursday as the national group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) declared a “day of resistance,” with demonstrations by its 200 chapters at colleges across North America.

The national group, which advocates for an independent Palestine and says on its website that it promotes “an agenda grounded in freedom, solidarity, equality, safety and historical justice,” called the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance.”

The Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization fighting antisemitism, wrote a letter to college presidents warning that Students for Justice in Palestine was “condoning terrorism by Hamas by repackaging it as justified acts of ‘resistance'” with its planned day of action.

The University of Arizona, Tucson chapter of SJP canceled a protest on Thursday, citing safety concerns after the school’s president called the gathering “antithetical to our university’s values.”

Dozens of students from the University of California Los Angeles chapter of SJP held a march for Palestine on Thursday, despite the group’s report that its student members had been harassed and assaulted over the last several days, including while counter-protesting a pro-Israel rally.

At Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the SJP chapter chose to host a vigil on Thursday night but declined to allow media access “due to increased harassment and threats of violence against Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and anti-Zionist students across the country.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Hamas has threatened to execute one hostage every time Israel drops a bomb, without warning, on a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip, Reuters said Tuesday, as the increasingly bloody war between the two sides rolls into a fourth day with no end in sight. The group has 150 hostages – including children and a Holocaust survivor – grabbed from border towns and kibbutzim in attacks that began early Saturday.

Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida said, “Every targeting of our people without warning will be met with the execution of one civilian hostage”. AFP reported that four hostages have already died (it is unclear if they were Israelis or other nationals) but also that they were killed during Israeli air strikes.

The hostages present a significant problem for an Israeli government that has vowed to respond to Hamas’ attacks with a “massive” assault and “unprecedented force”; Palestinians are bracing for a vicious response after Tel Aviv called up over three lakh soldiers, including reservists, ahead of a ground assault.

READ | NDTV Explains Why Gaza Is An ‘Open-Air Prison’ With No Escape

Public opinion has, so far been firmly with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He has the full support of the opposition too; ex-PM and current Leader of the Opposition, Yair Lapid, told NDTV Monday, “Nobody cares about politics right now… it doesn’t matter.”

READ | “Nobody Cares About Politics Right Now”: Israel Opposition Leader To NDTV

However, some experts feel Israelis will not “forgive” their leader if ensuring hostages’ safety, and rescuing them, is not a priority. “The citizens’ attitude would be ‘you have failed to ensure our security, bring us the hostages back’,” Sylvaine Bulle, a French sociologist studying Israel, told AFP. 

Ms Bulle also predicted tension between politicians and the military if hostages were killed.

Will the Israel government risk public sentiment in its bid for revenge for Hamas’ attacks? 

According to Kobi Micheal, a researcher from the Tel-Aviv based Institute for National Security Studies, “Hostages cannot be first priority. With all the sorrow… Israel will (address the) hostage issue only (when it has) the upper hand and when Hamas (is) defeated… not a second before.”

Reuters has also said Qatari mediators are negotiating the hostages’ release in exchange for 36 Palestinian women and children being held in Israeli prisons. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry confirmed to Reuters it is involved and sources told the news agency talks are “moving positively”.

There are contradictory reports, though; Hamas sources in Qatar told AFP there is “currently no chance for negotiation on the issue of prisoners or anything else”.

LIVE COVERAGE | Bodies Of 1,500 Hamas Operatives Found Near Border: Israel

On Monday Mr Netanyahu declared war on Hamas and said, “Hamas terrorists bound, burned and executed children. They are savages. Hamas is ISIS…” Israel Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, on Monday ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza; “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas…”

The Gaza Strip – 365 sq km large and home to 2.3 million people – is already one of the world’s most locked-down places. It is also the third most densely populated space in the world.

READ |Hamas Outmaneuvered Israel’s Surveillance Prowess By Going Dark

Over 1,600 people have died, more than 6,000 have been injured since the war began on Saturday. Fifteen deaths have also been reported from the West Bank, where Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces. The United Nations has said over 1.3 lakh have been displaced so far.

With input from agencies

New Delhi:

Israel has responded with all its might after the Hamas’ unprecedented terror strikes on its cities yesterday. The counterstrike by Israeli forces has targeted Hamas installations in the Gaza Strip. The rocket strikes and the counter-attack has claimed over 700 lives so far.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has shared on X videos of operations carried out against Hamas in Gaza “in response to the brutal terrorist offensive”.

The videos show aerial footage of the targeting of Hamas-linked vehicles and installations.

“Since 12 am yesterday, in response to the brutal terrorist offensive against Israel launched by Hamas, the IDF carried out the following operational activities in Gaza,” the IDF said in a post.

Since 12 am yesterday, in response to the brutal terrorist offensive against Israel launched by Hamas, the IDF carried out the following operational activities in Gaza: 1/4

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 8, 2023

In the thread that followed, it shared visuals, including night shots, of targeted bombings in the Gaza Strip.

“IDF aircraft struck a concealed launch site and targeted 2 terrorists near it. Terrorists attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory from the sea and through the security fence were targeted by IDF aircraft. We also struck an operational command center of the Hamas rocket system operatives and an operational command post belonging to the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization,” the IDF posted.

00:00 am: IDF aircraft struck a concealed launch site and targeted 2 terrorists near it.

Terrorists attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory from the sea and through the security fence were targeted by IDF aircraft.

We also struck an operational command center of the… pic.twitter.com/V41s26Ao4N

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 8, 2023

In an attack that shook the world, the Hamas yesterday pounded Israel with about 5,000 rockets within 20 minutes. The offensive overwhelmed the Iron Dome, Israel’s formidable aerial defence system. Hamas fighters also entered Israel by sea and land, kidnapping and attacking civilians.

Soon after, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country is “at war” and that the “enemy will pay an unprecedented price”.

The IDF said its aircraft had struck two operational situation rooms, located inside mosques, in Gaza.

In another post, the Israeli forces said it had struck 10 Hamas targets, including its intelligence headquarters and a military compound used by its aerial forces.

7:23 am: We struck 10 Hamas targets, among them, Hamas’ intelligence headquarters and a military compound used by Hamas’ aerial forces.

In parallel, we struck an aerial weapons production site used by the aerial forces belonging to Islamic Jihad, and a building including… pic.twitter.com/KcJDmCAXzr

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 8, 2023

“In parallel, we struck an aerial weapons production site used by the aerial forces belonging to Islamic Jihad, and a building including units where the terrorist organization stores weapons and military equipment,” the IDF said.

The Hamas attacks, particularly its targeting of civilians, has drawn strong condemnation globally. The West has expressed its unequivocal support to Tel Aviv. In the West Asian region, several countries that have diplomatic ties have called for restraint. Many others have backed Palestine and pointed to how yesterday’s attacks were a result of Israel’s “violent and extremist policies”.

Soon after yesterday’s attacks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X that he is “deeply shocked by the news of terrorist attacks in Israel”. “We stand in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour,” he added.

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New Delhi:

As gun battles raged between Israeli security forces and hundreds of Hamas group fighters in at least 22 locations, Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant today issued a threat to “change the face of reality” in Gaza. 

Over 200 Israelis and 232 Palestinians were killed on Saturday in the deadliest escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades, after the Hamas group launched a massive rocket barrage and ground, air, and sea offensive, prompting Israel to respond with intense airstrikes.

“Today, we have seen the face of evil. Hamas launched a criminal attack, without distinguishing between women, children and the elderly. It will realise very quickly that it made a grave mistake. We will change the face of reality in the Gaza Strip,” Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said in a video statement.

היום, ראינו את פני הרוע.

החמאס פתח בהתקפה נפשעת, ללא הבחנה בין נשים, ילדים וקשישים. הוא יבין מהר מאוד שעשה טעות חמורה.

אנחנו נשנה את פני המציאות ברצועת עזה עשרות שנים קדימה.

אזרחי ישראל, במיוחד בשעות קשות אלו, התאזרו בסבלנות וגבו את כוחות הביטחון. pic.twitter.com/psu4BOJg3w

— יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) October 7, 2023

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to demolish Hamas strongholds in Gaza, reducing them to rubble, as the conflict continued to escalate.

READ |Explained: Israel-Palestine And A History Of Conflict

Rockets pounded Israel from Gaza from 6:30 am on Saturday, following months of growing violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the highest death count in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, in years.

“Israel is now at war,” Prime Minister Netanyahu declared to the shocked nation Saturday morning, in what was the 50th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

“I’m telling the people of Gaza: get out of there now, because we’re about to act everywhere with all our force,” he added. “We’ll strike them to the bitter end and avenge with force this black day they brought on Israel and its people.”

US President Joe Biden reaffirmed his “unwavering” support for the US ally, Israel, as the UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for Sunday. He also warned against any adversaries of Israel exploiting the situation.

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New Delhi:

Air India on Saturday cancelled its flight from the national capital to Tel Aviv amid the Israeli city coming under attack by Hamas terrorists.

The full-service carrier operates five weekly flights to Tel Aviv. The service is on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

An airline spokesperson said flight AI 139 from the national capital to Tel Aviv on Saturday and the return flight AI 140 have been cancelled in the interests and safety of passengers and crew.

AI 139 flight was scheduled at 1535 hours (India time), and the return flight from Tel Aviv was at 2210 hours (Israel time) on Saturday.

The time difference between Delhi and Tel Aviv is around 0230 hours.

According to the Air India spokesperson, passengers are being extended all support as per their requirements.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed solidarity with Israel after Hamas terrorists launched an attack on the country.  

PM Modi condemned it as “terrorist attacks” in Israel as its leader Benjamin Netanyahu said the country is at war. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)