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The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
Hamas is classified by the European Union and the United States as a terrorist organization.
The attack came on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war, in which Syria and Egypt launched a surprise offensive on Israel.
Gun battles raged between Israeli forces and hundreds of Hamas fighters at at least 22 locations, Israel’s army said.
Israeli rescue service Zaka reported that 300 people were killed in Israel during the attacks and 1,590 were wounded as of Saturday evening. Israel’s army said that over 200 Israelis were killed and 1,000 wounded.
The Israeli army confirmed that several Israeli citizens, some of them soldiers, had been taken hostage in the fighting and were being held in the Gaza Strip, without giving an exact number. A Hamas spokesman later claimed that “dozens of soldiers” were being held in Gaza.
The Gaza Health Ministry said that 242 people have been killed and some 1,700 in strikes by the Israeli army after Hamas launched its attacks.
Rocket alerts sounded in the greater Tel Aviv area and other Israeli cities on Saturday evening.
The Magen David Adom rescue service said that several people were injured in the attacks, three of them seriously.
Israeli media cited the fire brigade as saying that a building in Tel Aviv had been hit by rockets and collapsed.
Hamas said that it had fired another 150 rockets at Israel in retaliation for strikes that hit a building in Gaza. Israel’s army said it attacked the building because it had been used by senior Hamas members for terrorist activities.
For more on Saturday’s events, please click here.
mm, sdi/wd (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)
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