A large-scale surprise attack by Palestinian Hamas on Saturday morning, October 7, 2023, has shocked Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately declared war on Palestine.
Hours after the Hamas attack, Israel retaliated with airstrikes on Gaza, killing many Palestinians.
In a video widely circulated on social media, Israel deployed its fighter jets against an 11-story building in the center of Gaza City, called the Palestinian Tower.
The building is referred to by the Israeli military as a Hamas command center. In the video circulating, Israeli warplanes attacked the building, causing it to crumble to the ground after being destroyed by high-precision bombs.
The Israeli military said dozens of fighter jets carried out airstrikes against Hamas locations in Gaza and had destroyed 17 Hamas military compounds. It also said it had mobilized tens of thousands of reserve troops for a massive ground invasion operation.
Palestinian Health Ministry officials told the BBC that 232 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza by Israeli retaliatory strikes, leaving around 1,790 Palestinians injured.
Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said a nurse and an ambulance driver were killed in the Israeli attack on Gaza.
Meanwhile, the number of Israelis killed since the Hamas attack on Saturday morning, October 7, 2023, has risen to 250, The Times of Israel reports. Another 1,452 people have been taken to hospital, with 18 in critical condition and 267 in serious condition.
