New Delhi:

The Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) today released footage showing and elite unit rescuing over 250 hostages near the Gaza security fence. Sixty Hamas terrorists were also killed as the Israel’s military’s “Shayetet 13” unit stormed the Sufa outpost.

The IDF said 250 hostages were rescued, while “over 60 Hamas terrorists were neutralised and 26 were apprehended, including Muhammad Abu A’ali, the Deputy Commander of the Hamas southern Naval Division.”

In the video released, the Israeli soldiers can be seen going inside the building and gun shots can be heard. A soldier is seen firing from behind cover and another throws a grenade at the outpost.  

״שייטת, שייטת, תישארו בבונקר, אנחנו באים!״ לוחמי שייטת 13 בקרב על מוצב סופה

כוחות יחידת שייטת 13 בסדיר ובמילואים הוזנקו במסוקים תוך זמן קצר עם הגעת הדיווחים על החדירה בגבול עזה בשבת בבוקר וחברו לכוחות הלוחמים בשטח למאמץ משותף.
הכוחות החלו בלחימה ביישובי העוטף ובים במקביל>> pic.twitter.com/dSQTqqj2yr

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 12, 2023

“Go on, light them up. Clear, clear”, a soldier can be heard as they scan the premises. Another soldier can be seen escorting a hostage out of the bunker. He is the held against the wall, “Put a pistol to him. I got him”, he says.

Also Read| Gazans Fight For Survival Amid Siege, Top US Diplomat Visits Israel

The soldiers then went inside the bunker and assured the hostages that they are here to “save” them and if they need “any first aid”.

Later in the footage, soldiers can be seen carrying a stretcher.

Today, marks the seventh day of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war with peace proposals nowhere on the table. At least 1,200 have died in Israel and another 1,400 in Gaza strip since the war began. Besides, the bodies of 1,500 Hamas operatives were found in the Israeli territory, the government has claimed.

The unit was deployed to the area surrounding the Gaza security fence in a joint effort to regain control of the Sufa military post on October 7.

Palestinian group Hamas launched a large-scale surprise attack on Israel from Gaza leaving hundreds dead. A large number of Israeli soldiers and civilians, especially women, are also being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Some are alive and some are presumed dead, military spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said, BBC reported. 

The official account of Israel War Room, a nonprofit organisation, took to X to share pictures of women and men kidnapped by Hamas amid war. 

”Hamas seems to have kidnapped mostly women. It has already been confirmed that Hamas fighters are using rape as a weapon of war. There must be no mercy for these barbarians,” they wrote on X, along with images of missing Israelis. 

Here’s the tweet:

Hamas seems to have kidnapped mostly women.

It has already been confirmed that Hamas fighters are using rape as a weapon of war.

There must be no mercy for these barbarians. https://t.co/ICTubV3k0B

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) October 7, 2023

Several Israelis have also been sharing photos of friends and family who they say have apparently been kidnapped by Hamas fighters. Relatives of those missing have been asked to hand their belongings to police stations so that DNA samples can be taken.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas was responsible for the hostages’  well-being and Israel would “settle the score with anyone who harms them”.

The number of Israeli nationals held captive by Hamas is “unprecedented”, IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN. “These are extremely disturbing scenes for any Israeli to see. I don’t even want to imagine what the fate of this Israeli person will be at the hands of these blood-thirsty animals,” he added. 

Meanwhile, a Hamas spokesman claimed that the number of Israeli hostages taken is ”many times greater than what Netanyahu thinks.”

Earlier, shocking footage of a 25-year-old woman being kidnapped from a peace festival by Hamas fighters surfaced on the internet. The distressing video showed Noa Argamani pleading for her life while sitting on the back of a fighter’s motorcycle. In the video, Ms Argamani was forcibly being driven away by gunmen as she screamed, ”Don’t kill me! No, no, no.”  Her boyfriend Avi Nathan was also seen being manhandled by the Hamas group, reported the New York Post. 

Israeli security forces are now carrying out operations to rescue the hostages. Israel’s health ministry has not confirmed how many people have died, but Israeli media put the number of people killed at 300. More than 1,860 others have been injured.

Sderot, Israel:

Hamas terrorists — travelling in vehicles, boats and motorised paragliders — breached Gaza’s security barrier and attacked nearby Israeli towns and military posts, opening fire on residents and passersby.

Gun battles raged into the night as at least 70 people were reported killed in Israel, while Gaza authorities released a death count of 232 in the conflict’s bloodiest escalation in years which also left many hundreds wounded on both sides.

The army said in the evening its forces were still engaged in live gun battles in 22 locations, in an ongoing operation labelled “Swords of Iron”, as reservists were being called up.

“There are still 22 locations where we are engaging with terrorists that came into Israel, from the sea, from the land and from the air,” said army spokesman Richard Hecht, adding that the Hamas attack included a “robust ground invasion”.

Hamas earlier released images of several Israelis taken captive, and another Israeli army spokesman, Daniel Hagari, confirmed that “there are kidnapped soldiers and civilians.

“I can’t give figures about them at the moment. It’s a war crime committed by Hamas and they will pay the price.”

“We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the stunned nation as the airforce pounded targets in the blockaded coastal enclave, including several residential tower blocks that were completely destroyed.

“The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” the veteran premier vowed after Hamas had launched its first such combined ground, air and sea offensive, half a century after the outbreak of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

The Islamist group started the multi-pronged attack around 6:30 am (0330 GMT) with thousands of rockets aimed as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, some bypassing the Iron Dome defence system and hitting buildings.

“Send help, please!” one Israeli woman sheltering with her two-year-old child pleaded as terrorists outside opened fire and tried to break into their safe room, Israeli media reported.

Bodies were seen lying on the streets of Sderot near Gaza and inside cars, their windscreens shattered by bullets.

“I saw many bodies, of terrorists and civilians,” one man who gave his name as Shlomi told AFP, standing beside covered corpses on a road near Gevim Kibbutz in southern Israel.

“So many bodies, so many bodies.”

‘Gates of hell’

Israeli army Major General Ghasan Alyan warned that Hamas had “opened the gates of hell”.

An AFP journalist in Gaza saw smoke billowing from the remains of a residential tower which Gaza’s interior ministry said contained 100 apartments and was completely destroyed.

Israel’s military said it had warned residents to evacuate before targeting the multi-storey buildings used by Hamas.

The aid group Doctors without Borders said one strike had hit the enclave’s Indonesian hospital and an ambulance outside Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, causing multiple deaths.

As night fell, Israel’s state-run electricity company cut the power supply to Gaza.

The escalation follows months of rising violence, mostly in the occupied West Bank, and tensions around Gaza’s border and at contested holy sites in Jerusalem.

Hamas labelled its attack “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” and called on “resistance fighters in the West Bank” as well as in “Arab and Islamic nations” to join the battle.

“We decided to put an end to all the crimes of the occupation (Israel),” said its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, claiming to have fired more than 5,000 rockets.

Hecht said Israel had counted more than 3,000 incoming rockets though the day.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh claimed the group was on the “verge of a great victory and a clear conquest on the Gaza front”.

“Enough is enough,” he said in a televised address. “The cycle of intifadas (uprisings) and revolutions in the battle to liberate our land and our prisoners languishing in occupation prisons must be completed.”

‘Dangerous precipice’

Air raid sirens wailed across southern and central Israel, as well as in Jerusalem, where multiple incoming rockets were intercepted by air defence systems.

In Tel Aviv, a gaping hole was ripped into a building, with residents boarding a bus to seek safety in a hotel.

Rocket impacts left cars burning beneath residential buildings in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, north of Gaza.

Among the dead was the president of a regional council for Israeli communities northeast of Gaza, who was killed in a gun battle.

Schools will remain closed on Sunday, the start of the week in Israel.

The conflict sparked major disruption at Tel Aviv airport, with American Airlines, Emirates and Ryanair among carriers with cancelled flights.

Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, leading to Israel’s crippling blockade of the impoverished enclave of 2.3 million people.

Israel and Hamas have since fought several wars. The last major military exchange, in May, killed 34 Palestinians and one Israeli.

In northern Gaza on Saturday, hundreds of people fled their homes, carrying food and blankets, an AFP correspondent said.

Across the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, three Palestinians were killed and around 80 wounded in clashes with Israeli forces and settlers, the Palestinian health ministry and Red Crescent Society said.

In Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, some Palestinian residents cheered and blew their car horns as sirens blared.

Western capitals condemned the attacks by Hamas, which the United States, European Union and Israel consider a terrorist group.

But Hamas drew support from other foes of Israel, with Iran’s supreme leader declaring he was “proud” and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah praising the “heroic operation”.

The United States condemned the attacks by “Hamas terrorists” and vowed to ensure the key US ally has the means to defend itself.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the attack “terrorism in its most despicable form”.

UN Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland warned of “a dangerous precipice” and called on all sides to “pull back from the brink”.

Before Saturday’s violence, at least 247 Palestinians, 32 Israelis and two foreigners had been killed this year, including combatants and civilians, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.