Race to escape Israel: Panic at the airport as travellers desperate to flee war ditch luggage and race to board planes out of the country – as rockets come down nearby

Hundreds of people currently trying to leave Israel have been held back by rockets that have landed near the country’s main airport, as a third day of violence in the region gets under way.

More than 700 Israelis have been killed since Hamas launched its full-scale offensive over the weekend, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday, while another 1,200 people have been injured, many critically.

Ben-Gurion Airport, Israel’s main international gateway, was filled with travelers trying to leave the country on Monday.

But departure boards at the airport, which last year saw more than 20 million passengers on 143,000 international and domestic flights, were glowing red after flight after flight was canceled by aviation authorities.

Hundreds of anxious travelers were seen with their heads in their hands as they racked their brains to figure out how to leave Israel.

The delays come hours after a missile landed in the Tel Aviv area near Ben-Gurion airport.

Video shared online appeared to show smoke rising from Ben-Gurion, near the airport parking lot.

A spokesman for the Israel Airports Authority said there had been a missile interception in the air and a possible strike on a nearby village.

They added that there were no impacts on the airport itself.

A man who shot a video that was shared on a Telegram page revealed the panic at Ben-Gurion Airport.

He told the camera: ‘Guys, I don’t know what’s going on here. It’s madness.’

Sirens wailed overhead as travelers were told to move to a nearby shelter.

A security guard was heard telling him: ‘Move, drop everything.’

The airport is also home to a center for missing and kidnapped persons, following mass civilian deaths and abductions at the hands of Hamas forces.

Police were seen distributing evidence boxes by the dozens.

An officer was seen comforting a woman outside the centre.

Many countries around the world have made efforts to expel their citizens from Israel.

The Spaniards were repatriated from Israel hours after its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas. 170 passengers arrived at Barajas airport in Madrid on Monday.

In Bulgaria, dozens were seen leaving Sofia International Airport after being repatriated from Israel by the government.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has also ordered preparations to fly Thai nationals out of Israel after two Thai nationals were killed, eight injured and 11 captured in the weekend violence.

This morning, Israel’s defense minister ordered a ‘full encirclement’ in the Palestinian enclave, while the country is still clearing areas in the south for Hamas attackers.

Minister Yoav Gallant added that authorities will cut off electricity in the border area and block the entry of food and fuel into the region.

The announcement comes as the Israeli military scoured the country’s south for Hamas attackers and guarded cracks in its border fence with tanks as it relentlessly pounded the Gaza Strip in the early hours of this morning, with airstrikes and artillery hitting more than 1,000 targets that belonged to him. Hamas overnight.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and buildings reduced to rubble after Israel launched its deadly revenge attack in response to a surprise attack by Hamas that has so far killed more than 700 Israelis and wounded 1,200.

Israeli airstrikes have so far leveled most of the town of Beit Hanoun in the northeastern corner of the Palestinian enclave, which Hamas terrorists had been using as a staging ground for their attacks.

On the ground, thousands of Israeli soldiers are preparing to launch a massive ground assault within the ‘next 48 hours’ to destroy Hamas fighters and infrastructure in Gaza that will see fighting spill over into the streets, US officials say.

Israel has so far brought in special forces to try to wrest control of four sites from Hamas fighters in the south of the country.

The Israel Defense Forces have said they want to completely remove Hamas’ power to govern Palestine, after what has been described as the country’s “worst day in history” with the Israeli death toll in the conflict set to rise on further.

And today, Israel’s military said its forces were in “full control of communities” in its southern territory near Gaza – hours after it said it was fighting Hamas terrorists in “seven to eight” locations in the south.

“We have full control of the communities,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters, adding however that there may still be “terrorists” in the area.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said he believed as many as 1,000 Palestinian gunmen were involved in the unprecedented attack on Israel on Sunday, which he called “the worst day in Israeli history.”

“Never before have so many Israelis been killed by a single thing, let alone by enemy activity in one day,” he said, adding that the current death toll of 700 is expected to rise as more than 1,000 Israelis are injured, some in critical condition.

Hamas launched a barrage of rockets into Hamas on Saturday and sent a wave of fighters who killed hundreds of civilians in cold blood and took at least 100 hostages in a major coordinated attack that caught Israel by surprise.

Terrorists massacred 260 Israeli revelers at a festival in a hail of bullets, with survivors describing how the gunmen went ‘tree by tree’ executing the victims.

Survivors of the attack posted videos of the ordeal on social media, showing how they were forced to hide under bushes and record silent goodbye messages to their loved ones as they watched the victims being killed one by one.

Many were still terrified for more than five hours before they heard the sound of armed rescuers speaking in Hebrew.

The Palestinian terror group attacked the Supernova Festival taking place near Kibbutz Re’im, near the Gaza Strip, as part of a surprise attack launched on Saturday.