What we know about Israel’s war with Hamas

Israel has formed an emergency

government to conduct war against Hamas, five days after the group’s fighters
killed civilians in their homes and on the streets in an unprecedented assault
on its soil.

Thousands have died over the last five days, with Israel responding to the
killings with a massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip which Hamas rules.

Israel has massed its military forces around the besieged Palestinian
enclave in what appears to be preparation for a possible ground invasion.
This is what we know about the conflict so far:

How the assault unfolded

Hundreds of Hamas militants attacked Israel from around 6:30 am (0330 GMT)
on Saturday, the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, in an assault that came 50
years and a day after the outbreak of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

The Iran-backed Islamists fired thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel
and used explosives and bulldozers to break through the security fence around
the blockaded Palestinian enclave.

Using motorbikes, pickup trucks, motorised gliders and speed boats, the
militants streamed into Israel, targeting cities including Ashkelon, Ofakim and
Sderot.

The gunmen fired on hundreds of young Israelis and foreigners at a music
festival near Kibbutz Reim, close to Gaza. Some 270 people died at the site
alone.

Hamas also took around 150 hostages, Israel said. They include at least 14
Thais, two Mexicans and an unknown number of Americans and Germans.

How Israel is responding

Israel declared war on Hamas on Sunday and has since carried out thousands
of air strikes inside the densely populated territory of 2.3 million people.
The bombing campaign has flattened more than 1,000 homes, while 560 more
have been so severely damaged they are uninhabitable, UN humanitarian agency
OCHA said, citing Palestinian authorities.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza,
meaning “no electricity, no food, no water, no gas”, in a move decried by the
United Nations as a possible violation of international law.

The military has massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy armour near
Gaza, and called up 300,000 reservists for a campaign it has dubbed “Swords of
Iron”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that his country’s military
campaign was only the start of a sustained war.

By Tuesday evening, the United Nations said that the air strikes had forced
more than 260,000 people to flee their homes in the impoverished territory
hemmed in by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade for more than 15 years.

Three Israeli strikes have also hit the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the only
entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel.

The Israeli military meanwhile said Tuesday that it had largely reclaimed
the embattled south and the border around Gaza, and dislodged holdout Hamas
fighters from more than a dozen towns and kibbutzim.

But late Tuesday in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, troops backed by
helicopters and drones exchanged fire with several militants, leaving three
fighters dead, the army said.

And on Wednesday a rocket from Gaza struck a hospital in Ashkelon.
Israel faced the threat of a multi-front war after days of back and forth
shelling with the Iran-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah on the northern
border with Lebanon.

Hezbollah said it fired missiles at Israel Wednesday, and the Israeli
military said it responded with by striking one of the group’s military
observation posts in southern Lebanon.

Israel also exchanged fire with militants in Syria on Tuesday after the
army said munitions were fired towards the occupied Golan Heights.

On Wednesday afternoon, Netanyahu and his centrist political rival Benny
Gantz announced they had agreed an emergency unity government.

Netanyahu said he would freeze his controversial judicial reforms that have
divided Israel, but his extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies would
remain in Government.

Death toll mounts

Israel says Hamas gunmen have killed more than 1,200 people and wounded
over 2,700 in Israeli cities, towns and kibbutz communities.

In the kibbutz of Beeri alone, Hamas gunmen killed more than 100 people, a
volunteer who helped recover the bodies told AFP.

The Israeli military said 169 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the
fighting and the bodies of 1,500 Islamist militants have been found in
recaptured areas.

Eighteen Thais, at least 22 US citizens and 10 Nepalis are among foreigners
from more than a dozen countries killed.

In Gaza, health officials said 1,055 people had been killed and more than
5,000 wounded.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, on Monday said Israeli
air strikes on Gaza had killed “four of the enemy’s prisoners”, in a claim that
could not be independently verified.

Eight Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli air strikes,
according to media unions and officials.

The United Nations said on Wednesday that 11 of its staff as well as 30
students at UN schools had been killed in Gaza since Saturday, while the
International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies said five of its members had
been killed.

Unrest has also broken out in the occupied West Bank, where 27 Palestinians
have died since Saturday.

What Hamas says about the attack

Hamas said it fired 5,000 rockets in an offensive it branded “Operation
Al-Aqsa Flood”.

On Monday it threatened to start killing hostages every time Israel
launches a strike on a civilian target without warning.

It has ruled out negotiating a prisoner swap with Israel as “the military
operation is still ongoing”.

Its chief Ismail Haniyeh vowed Saturday to press ahead with “the battle to
liberate our land and our prisoners languishing in occupation prisons”.
Hamas has called on “resistance fighters in the West Bank” as well as in
“Arab and Islamic nations” to join the battle.

How the world has reacted

The United States has vowed “rock solid and unwavering” support for Israel,
with President Joe Biden condemning the attacks by Hamas as “sheer evil”, and
so far shown no sign of calling for restraint by its key ally.

Biden said Washington was “surging assistance” for Israel, including
missiles for its Iron Dome interceptor system, while the largest US aircraft
carrier has been ordered to move closer to Israel.

Washington is also deploying hostage experts to Israel to help, but says it
is so far not sending troops.

A joint statement by the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy
condemned the attack and stressed their full support for Israel.

They said they “recognise the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian
people” but said Hamas “offers nothing for the Palestinian people other than
more terror and bloodshed”.

Iran has meanwhile celebrated the Hamas assault, but has repeatedly denied
allegations it had a role in it. (BSS/AFP)