After Hamas terrorists launched a brutal attack on Israel, dramatic images of the US and Israeli flags in flames are emerging around the world.
Around 600 Israelis are believed to have been killed and more than 370 Palestinians are dead. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a “long and difficult war.”
Nations around the world monitoring violence in the region appear to have already chosen sides in the conflict, which has so far been the region’s bloodiest weekend in 50 years.
Western countries, including the US, Germany and Britain, have shown signs of solidarity with Israel, while much of the Arab world stood behind Palestine.
Dramatic images of the US and Israeli flags in flames have emerged around the world as Hamas terrorists launched a brutal attack on Israel
In Pakistan, supporters of Palestine were seen chanting at a demonstration while protesters burned flags of both the US and Israel
In Pakistan, supporters of Palestine were seen chanting at a demonstration while protesters burned flags of both the US and Israel.
Before the burning, several young boys were also seen standing on the flag and waving their own Palestinian flags.
Meanwhile, Yemeni supporters of Palestine were seen tearing up US and Israeli flags at a large protest rally in Sanaa, the country’s capital.
Neighboring Lebanon showed its support for Hamas, the force behind Saturday’s deadly attack, with hundreds of its citizens taking to the streets in solidarity marches in Beirut.
During a celebration marking the attacks in southern Beirut, supporters expressed their solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by also burning a flag.
The Israeli government officially declared war on Sunday and gave the green light to “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas.
More than 24 hours after Hamas launched its unprecedented advance from Gaza, Israeli forces were still trying to destroy the last groups of militants holed up in several cities in southern Israel.
At least 600 people were reportedly killed in Israel – a staggering toll the country has not seen in decades – and more than 300 were killed in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes bombarded the area.
Authorities were still trying to determine how many civilians and soldiers were captured and returned to Gaza by Hamas militants during the chaos.
Videos and witness statements show that the prisoners include women, children and the elderly.
Meanwhile, Yemeni supporters of Palestine were seen tearing up US and Israeli flags at a large protest rally in Sanaa, the country’s capital
An Israeli flag was burned in southern Beirut, Lebanon, during a celebration marking the attacks carried out by the militant group Hamas to express solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
Up to 1,000 Hamas fighters were involved in the attack, US Secretary of State Andrew Blinken said on ABC’s “This Week”.
The high number underscores the extent of planning by the militant group that rules Gaza.
The gunmen rampaged for hours, shooting at civilians in cities, along highways and at a techno music festival in the desert near Gaza.
Civilians on both sides have already paid a heavy price.
A line of Israelis snaked outside a central Israeli police station to deliver DNA samples and other resources that could help identify missing family members.
Israeli television news broadcast a series of reports from relatives of captured or missing Israelis crying and begging for help and information.
In Gaza, the tiny enclave of 2.3 million people that has been sealed off by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade for 16 years since Hamas seized power, residents feared an intensified attack.
Several residential buildings were razed to the ground by Israeli attacks. More than 20,000 people who had fled their homes crowded into schools run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, the agency said.
Several Israeli media outlets reported, citing rescue workers, that at least 600 people were killed in Israel, including 44 soldiers.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 313 people, including 20 children, were killed in the area. About 2,000 people were injured on each side.
An Israeli official said security forces killed 400 militants and captured dozens more.
A shootout in northern Israel with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah raised fears of an escalation of the conflict.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets and grenades at three Israeli positions in a disputed border area on Sunday, and the Israeli military fired back with armed drones.
According to the nearby Marjayoun Hospital, two children on the Lebanese side were slightly injured by broken glass.
The Israeli military said the situation was calm after the exchange.
It is estimated that the Iranian-backed Hezbollah has tens of thousands of rockets.
Since its brutal war with Israel in 2006, Hezbollah has remained on the sidelines amid previous fighting between Israel and Hamas.
But if the destruction in Gaza escalates, it may feel pressure to intervene.
A key question was whether Israel would launch a ground attack on the Gaza Strip, a move that has led to increased casualties in the past.
The declaration of war announced by Israel’s security cabinet was largely symbolic, said Yohanan Plesner, the head of the Israel Democracy Institute, a local think tank.
But it “shows that the government believes we are entering a longer, more intense and significant period of war.”
Israel has waged major military campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza over the past four decades, portraying them as wars but without a formal declaration.
The security cabinet also agreed to “significant military steps.” The steps were not defined, but the statement appears to give the military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a broad mandate.
In a speech on national television Saturday, Netanyahu promised that Hamas “will pay an unprecedented price.” He further warned: “This war will take time. It will be difficult.”
In a statement, his office said the goal was to destroy Hamas’s “military and governance capabilities” to a degree that would prevent it from threatening Israelis “for many years.”
Israelis were still reeling from the scale, ferocity and surprise of the Hamas attack.
The group’s fighters broke through the Israeli security fence around the Gaza Strip early Saturday.
With motorcycles and pickup trucks, and on the coast even with paragliders and speedboats, they moved to surrounding Israeli communities – up to 22 places.
The high death toll and slow response to the attack signaled a major intelligence failure and undermined the long-held notion that Israel has eyes and ears everywhere in the small, densely populated territory it has controlled for decades.
Hamas said it continued to send troops and equipment to southern Israel overnight.
Fighting continued in some parts of the south on Sunday and gunmen were still holding hostages in some locations, Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters. The Israeli military said it would evacuate at least five towns near Gaza.
“We will go through every community until we kill every terrorist who is on Israeli territory,” Hagari said.
In Gaza, “every terrorist who is in a house, every commander in the house will be hit by Israeli fire. This will continue to escalate in the next few hours.”
According to the Israeli military on Sunday, Israel has so far attacked 426 targets in Gaza. Much of the territory’s population was plunged into darkness Saturday evening when Israel shut off electricity and said it would no longer supply the territory with electricity, fuel or other goods.
A woman seeking shelter at a UNWRA school in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City described a panicked escape from her home in the middle of the night. The Israeli military made announcements over loudspeakers asking people to leave.
“We didn’t know where to go,” she said. “It was a miracle we got to the schools because there was no transportation.”
The presence of hostages in Gaza complicates Israel’s response. Hamas officials have said they will seek the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners, and Israel has a history of making highly one-sided arrangements to bring captured Israelis home.
The military has confirmed that a “significant” number of Israelis were kidnapped on Saturday, without giving an exact number.
An Egyptian official said Israel had asked Cairo for help to ensure the safety of the hostages and that Egypt’s intelligence chief had contacted Hamas and the smaller but more radical Islamic Jihad group, which was also involved in the raid, for information . Egypt has often mediated between the two sides in the past.
The official said Palestinian leaders claimed they did not yet have a “full picture” of the number of hostages, but said those taken to Gaza had been moved to “safe locations” throughout the territory.
“It is clear that they have a large number – several dozen,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
Egypt also spoke to both sides about a possible ceasefire, but the official said Israel was not open to a ceasefire “at this point.”
In Iran, which has long supported Hamas and other militant groups, senior officials have openly praised the raid.
President Ebrahim Raisi spoke by telephone with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhalah, the state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday.
The shadowy leader of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the attack, dubbed “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm,” was a response to the 16-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation and a series of recent incidents involving Israel have plunged into chaos – Tensions in Palestine are reaching their peak.
Last year, Israel’s right-wing extremist government pushed ahead with settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
Violence by Israeli settlers there displaced hundreds of Palestinians and caused tensions around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a holy site in Jerusalem.