Israel’s darkest day: the 24 hours of terror that shook the country
Attackers at the border; an Israeli taken hostage; the aftermath at the festival; and destruction at a kibbutz. Photographs: Reuters/AFP; AP; Getty; Guardian
As dawn broke last Saturday over the 40-mile Gaza-Israel barrier, once confidently described as an “iron wall”, Hamas struck at the eyes and ears of Israel’s defence. It was shortly before 6.30am at the end of a Sukkot week of holiday when explosive devices, dropped from above by drones, made a mockery of past claims of impregnability by disabling the wall’s communication towers and its remote-controlled machine gun posts, while snipers picked off sensors and cameras, blinding Israeli defenders, left staring at blank screens, to what was in deadly motion.
Unseen in the weak light of early morning and unheard under the roar of the first of about 2,200 rockets fired towards southern and central Israel,
Hamas fighters used wire cutters to make discreet punctures in the 20ft-tall (6 metres) double fence barrier or detonated small explosive loads to create larger openings.
It allowed their best trained men to scramble across on motorbikes and pickup trucks, their wheels churning up dust, as they embarked on a murderous search for the closest Israeli soldiers.
The shock troops from the military wing of Hamas, known as the Qassam brigades, bristling with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, were followed by bulldozers and hundreds more armed men, many on foot, swarming through 30 breaches of the defensive line.
Some of the Hamas militants, showing a taste for the spectacular, flew over on motorised paragliders – terror on wings. A total of 1,500 gunmen are believed to have crossed, under a sky lit by rocket fire.
“We have decided to put an end to all of the occupation’s crimes,” announced Hamas’s military commander, Mohammed Deif. “The time is over for them to act without accountability. Thus, we announce the al-Aqsa deluge.”
Over the last week, hours of footage has been shared on social media, taken from security cameras, car dashcams and the phones of terrorists and victims alike, providing an uncomfortably clear picture of how Israel’s darkest day unfolded.
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How Israeli military bases, kibbutzim and a music festival were overrun by gunmen under orders to kill and take hostages
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