By Ivan Stone
Published: | Updated:
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Follow MailOnline’s live blog here for all the updates on the war between Israel and Hamas militants after the terror fighters launched an unprecedented attack on the Jewish nation on Saturday.
Young children and elderly grandparents were among more than 100 hostages held as human shields by Hamas last night.
Families have described the horror of only discovering their loved ones had been abducted by watching chilling videos posted on social media by their gleeful captors.
Footage showed crying children and their helpless mothers being dragged from their homes and loaded into vehicles by heavily armed men before being driven to Gaza.
Two Britons are suspected to be among those arrested after the terror group launched its bloody surprise attack.
A group of 31 Harvard organizations, including the institution’s Ivy League affiliate Amnesty International, have blamed Israel for the brutal and surprise attack by Hamas that killed at least 700 Israelis.
The organizations released a letter to the public as a “Joint Statement by the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine” on Sunday to condemn Israel after the violence.
They claim that Hamas attacks, which are still ongoing, ‘did not happen in a vacuum’ and the Israeli government has forced Palestinians to live in ‘an open prison for more than two decades’.
The music in the deadly blast, which survivors said initially had ‘good vibes’, played throughout the night until 6.30am, when a siren began blaring rocket warnings. Hamas terrorists then cut the electricity, as rockets flew overhead and jeeps filled with armed men entered the site.
Terrifying footage shows partygoers screaming as shots are fired as police are seen trying to help people evacuate. Some are seen holding hands as they run away while others shout ‘go, go, go’.
Survivors of the attack said they were forced to hide under bushes as they watched the victims being killed one by one, until they heard the sound of rescuers speaking in Hebrew. According to Israeli media, it took five hours for the army to arrive.
Meanwhile, worried relatives hoping to find their loved ones were asked to bring in personal items such as combs and toothbrushes belonging to their missing children to help emergency services begin the grim task of matching DNA with the bodies found.
The leader of Hamas after the deadliest attack on Israel watched and celebrated the invasion from the safety of his office in Qatar.
Ismail Haniyeh was seen with other Hamas officials cheering with joy before prostrating themselves on the floor and praising God.
It came after the terror group launched the single deadliest attack ever launched against Israel – which the Jewish state has claimed is ‘our 9/11’.
Israeli media said at least 700 people were killed and 2,000 wounded in Saturday’s attack.
The surprise attack by Hamas on Saturday morning came just a day after the 50th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur War, which saw Israel fight existential threats from hostile neighbors led by Egypt and Syria.
Israeli soldiers and civilians battled Hamas militants on the streets of southern Israel after a barrage of 2,000 rockets fired over the border by Palestinian terrorists, in addition to a ferocious ground attack.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 413 people, including 78 children and 41 women, were killed in the territory.
About 2,000 people were injured on each side. An Israeli official said security forces have killed 400 militants and captured dozens more.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus also confirmed that the Americans, British and French were involved in the massacre.
He said that among the abductees were children, infants, the elderly and the disabled.
Iran was branded a ‘terrorist state’ last night as spiraling violence threatened to spill over into a major conflict in the Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed ‘great revenge’, vowing to turn parts of Gaza run by Hamas into rubble.
Forces in the north also exchanged rocket and artillery fire with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.
Senior members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group claimed that the surprise Hamas attack on Israel that killed at least 700 people was given the green light by Iranian security officials.
The official disclosure about the attack was allegedly made at a meeting on Monday in Beirut.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said they want to completely remove Hamas’ power to govern in Palestine after Israel’s “worst day in history” – and warned that the death toll of 700 is likely to rise much further. high.
Troops of young revelers were seen piled on top of each other in makeshift tents last night as emergency workers tried to identify the 260 festival-goers killed at an Israeli music festival by Hamas terrorists in a shock attack.
The disturbing image, shared in pixelated form on the Israeli government’s official Twitter account, showed scores of victims placed in body bags at the site of the ‘beautiful celebration’ that turned into a horrific massacre.
Footage from the aftermath shows empty festival tents and abandoned cars strewn wildly along the road leading to the Supernova Festival, which was taking place near Kibbutz Re’im, near the Gaza Strip.
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