More than 260 bodies have been recovered following a surprise attack on an Israel music festival on Saturday.
Palestinian militant group Hamas stormed the festival with heavy force Saturday morning local time. Terrorists opened fire on the 3000 festival goers who were celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Footage of people running from gunfire surfaced online. Videos on social media have also shown trucks of Israeli hostages being driven into Gaza.
There are fears that Hamas may have taken more than 100 Israelis hostage in Gaza as families continue to search for missing loved ones.
By Sunday night, Israel officials stated that the death toll had exceeded 700 with thousands of others injured. Air strikes launched by Israel in response to the ambush have seen at least 400 killed, as the conflict’s death toll goes above 1100.
It is estimated that more than 2200 missiles have been fired by Hamas since the first sirens Saturday morning.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared his country was at war in a television address before 12pm on Saturday and advised residents in Gaza to “get out now”.
“The Israel Defense Forces will act immediately to destroy Hamas’s capabilities,” he said.
“We will cripple them mercilessly and avenge this black day they have brought upon Israel and its citizens.”
Netanyahu posted further comments on platform ‘X’, formerly known as Twitter vowing to avenge his country.
“Hamas has started a brutal and evil war. We will be victorious in this war despite an unbearable price,” he said.
“All of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble.”
Israel officially declared war and launched air strikes targeting 21 locations housing Hamas military operations.
The Israel-Hamas conflict has been active for decades, but this war is expected to be a long and difficult one with either side prepared to back down.
Hamas is an Islamist organisation with a military wing that first started in 1987. The word stands for resistance movement in Arabic.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has thrown support behind Israel and described the attack as a “traumatic, devastating episode”.
“We will provide whatever support for Australians in Israel is needed,” he said.
Albanese also responded to the pro-Palestinian protests in Sydney over the weekend that supported the attacks on Israel.
“[There was] nothing to celebrate by the murder of innocent civilians going about their day,” he said.
US president Joe Biden also pledged to do as much as possible in supporting Israel through the war, offering further assistance.
“Terrorism is never justified. Israel has a right to defend itself and its people,” Biden said in a statement.
