Hamas took babies hostage in a surprise terror attack that killed more than 300 people and injured 1,500, Israel’s former prime minister says
Hamas gunmen who launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel have taken babies and elderly women hostage, according to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Bennett revealed the chilling details of the ongoing attack in an interview with CNN on Saturday evening, as shootings continued in the streets of Israel more than 24 hours after the attack began.
“It was a very hard day for the state of Israel, for the citizens of Israel.” “The number of murdered Israelis is huge,” Bennet said.
“We have babies who have been abducted to Gaza.” We have an 80-year-old woman with what appears to be dementia who has been abducted to Gaza. So it was one of the hardest days in the history of Israel,” he continued.
Published reports from Israel indicate that more than 300 Israelis have been killed and 1,590 injured since Hamas launched its lightning attack with rockets and gangs of roving gunmen, targeting civilians and soldiers alike in dozens of locations.
Fire and smoke billow over buildings during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City early Sunday. At least 300 Israelis have died in a surprise major attack by the militant Palestinian group Hamas
Hamas gunmen who launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel took babies hostage, according to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (right).
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Jonathan Conricus told CNN that up to 1,000 armed Hamas fighters were believed to have entered the border early Saturday, coupled with rocket attacks throughout the day.
Hamas says it is holding dozens of Israeli hostages in Gaza, which the militants likely want to use as bait to lure Israel Defense Forces soldiers into a deadly trap.
“In its cruel brutality, Hamas kidnapped women, children, the elderly and even disabled elderly people and dragged them – some of them alive, some dead – to Gaza and paraded them on the streets,” he told Conricus.
Conricus described the number of hostages as “significant,” but declined to give a specific number and described the situation as “extremely delicate.”
It is by far the deadliest day of violence in Israel since the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago, and fighting continued into the early hours of the morning.
More than 230 Gazans were also killed as Israel responded with one of its most devastating days of retaliation. The fighting lasted into the night.
A captured woman sat in the front seat of a golf cart with three male Hamas members as they made their way to the Gaza Strip
“On this evil day, we will take tremendous revenge,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Hamas has started a cruel and evil war.” “We will win this war, but the price is too high to bear,” he said.
“Hamas wants to murder us all.” This is an enemy that murders mothers and children in their homes and in their beds. An enemy that kidnaps the elderly, children and teenage girls.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the attack, which began in Gaza, would spread to the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The story develops, more follows.