Israel war: Hamas threatens to execute hostages; Israel orders Gaza’s ‘complete siege’
A Hamas official claims the attack on Israel was planned by only a “handful of commanders”, as Israel orders Gaza’s ‘complete siege’. Warning: Graphic
Around half a dozen Hamas commanders planned the attack on Israel that has left hundreds dead, a member of the militant’s exiled leadership says.
Ali Barakeh said “only a handful” of top commanders in Gaza had knowledge of the onslaught and warned allies like Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah “will join the battle if Gaza is subjected to a war of annihilation”, according to The Associated Press.
Mr Barakeh denied reports that Iran helped plan the attack.
He also said the militant group expected Israel would stop or limit the attack.
“We were surprised by this great collapse,” Barakeh said.
“We were planning to make some gains and take prisoners to exchange them. This army was a paper tiger.”
It comes as Hamas threatened to start executing hostages for every civilian house bombed after Israel turned Gaza into rubble and mobilised 300,000 troops in preparation for a massive ground invasion.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they would “change the Middle East” in retaliation for one of the bloodiest attacks in its history.
“We have to go in. We can’t negotiate now,” he told US President Joe Biden during a call between the leaders.
The toll from the Hamas assault sits at 900 Israelis dead, and more than 500 dead in Gaza. Thousands were injured while at least 100 hostages were taken.
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THREAT IN AUSTRALIA ‘VERY REAL’: PETER DUTTON WARNS
The threat to people of Jewish faith in Australia is “very real” as tensions flare in the wake of Hamas‘ attack on Israel, Opposition leader Peter Dutton has warned.
Speaking in Adelaide on Tuesday, Mr Dutton condemned the “terrible scenes” at the Opera House on Monday night and said the NSW police and Premier Chris Minns had questions to answer over the apparent arrest of a man carrying an Israeli flag near the protest.
“(They) have answers to provide today to questions as to why a man carrying an Israeli flag was dragged from, or removed from, the vicinity of the Opera House in order to go home.
“Police are charged with keeping the peace.
“I think this is a very significant issue for the NSW Government to answer and I look forward to hearing Premier Minns explain exactly what happened.”
Mr Dutton said he also found it “remarkable” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had not appeared to hold a formal National Security Council meeting since the Hamas attack to discuss the ”domestic threat level” and ”look at ways in which they can de-escalate some of the scenes that we saw or prevent those gatherings from taking places in the first instance”.
It is understood the PM and relevant ministers have received rolling briefings from security agencies on the domestic and international situation since Saturday.
Mr Dutton said there are stories coming out of Jewish communities where kids were being told not to wear their school uniforms in public.
“That’s the environment in which our Jewish community is living in in our country at the moment,” he said.
Mr Dutton said there was “no excuse” for the behaviour from anti-Israel protesters.
“(The Hamas attack) is not a border conflict,” he said.
“This was an act of terrorism and treachery and it should be properly condemned by every decent human being.
“I think some of the behaviour that we saw at the Opera House last night does not belong in our country.”
Mr Dutton said people had the right to protest peacefully, but “some of the conduct last night was appalling”.
“Frankly, there should have been a lot more done to deter that gathering from taking place in the first instance.”
ON THE GROUND IN TEL AVIV
Our Europe Correspondent Danielle Gusmaroli explains what it’s like as Israelis have fled for safety.
U2 PAYS TRIBUTE TO KILLED MUSIC FANS
U2 has paid tribute to the hundreds of music fans who died at the hands of Hamas fighters at the weekend.
During the band‘s set at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Bono took a moment to reflect on the conflict in Gaza.
“In the light of what’s happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about non-violence seems somewhat ridiculous, even laughable, but our prayers have always been for peace and for non-violence,” he said.
“But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed. So sing with us and those beautiful kids at that music festival.”
In the light of what’s happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about non-violence seems somewhat ridiculous, even laughable, but our prayers have always been for peace and for non-violence…
— U2 (@U2) October 9, 2023
But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed. So sing with us… and those… pic.twitter.com/S1zfCMNtzz
Bono then launched into Pride (In the Name of Love) - adjusting the opening lyrics of the song.
“Early morning, October 7, the sun is rising in the desert sky. Stars of David, they took your life but they could not take your pride,” he sang.
He repeated “Could not take your pride” twice as the band ramped up into the chorus “In the name of love”.
The song, which was a nod to Martin Luther King Jr, traditionally starts with “One many came in the name of love”, and features this verse: “Early morning, April four. Shot rings out in the Memphis sky. Free at last, they took your life. They could not take your pride”.
IRAN THREATENS UNITED STATES
Iran-backed Hezbollah has threatened the US over involvement in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“If the US intervenes directly, all US positions in the region will become legitimate targets of the resistance axis and face our attacks, and on that day there will be no red line,” the statement read in part.
Earlier a senior US defence official warned Hezbollah against opening a second front against Israel.
“We are deeply concerned about Hezbollah making the wrong decision and choosing to open a second front to this conflict,” the official said.
It comes after Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed three Hezbollah members, as tensions surged after Palestinian militants tried to infiltrate into Israel from Lebanon.
Hezbollah issued three separate statements confirming the death of its members, all of them “martyred as a result of the Zionist aggression on south Lebanon Monday afternoon”, the group said.
The group retaliated by striking two Israeli barracks, it later said.
“Groups of the Islamic Resistance (Hezbollah), in an initial response, attacked” two Israeli barracks “using guided missiles and mortar shells that hit them directly”, Hezbollah said in a statement.
BARACK OBAMA ‘HORRIFIED, OUTRAGED’
Barack Obama says Israel has a right right to defend itself against terror.
In a tweet liked by Elon Musk, the former US president said “we must keep striving for a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike”.
All Americans should be horrified and outraged by the brazen terrorist attacks on Israel and the slaughter of innocent civilians. We grieve for those who died, pray for the safe return of those who’ve been held hostage, and stand squarely alongside our ally, Israel, as it…
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 9, 2023
The United States confirmed 11 Americans were killed in the attacks and many more are likely among those being held by Hamas, while the United Kingdom said 10 citizens were dead or missing.
British man Jacob Marlowe is among more than 260 bodies removed from the Supernova music festival.
It has been the deadliest incursion into Israeli territory since Egypt and Syria’s attacks in the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago.
Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said he has ordered Gaza’s “complete siege.”
“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip,” he said.
“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.
“We are fighting barbarians and we act accordingly.”
NETANYAHU SAYS ‘TERRORISTS’ STILL INSIDE ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on Israel’s opposition to form a government of national unity as the country reeled under a deadly assault by Hamas.
“I call on opposition leaders to immediately form an emergency government of national unity without any preconditions,” Netanyahu said in a televised speech.
In his speech, he said the government planned to regain control of the territory and “eliminate terrorists” still present in Israel.
Israel planned to carry out a “massive” assault against Hamas with “unprecedented force” and “strengthen other fronts in the north against Hezbollah” in Lebanon, as well as in the occupied West Bank, he said.
Netanyahu said he will also continue to campaign for international support and work for the “unity of the people” by forming the national unity government.
HAMAS ‘OPEN TO TRUCE TALKS’
A senior Hamas official reportedly said the group was open to a possible ceasefire after having “achieved its targets”.
Moussa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera that Hamas was open to “something of that sort” and “all political dialogues” when asked about a truce.
It comes as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey is ready to act as a mediator between Israeli and Palestinian authorities if the two parties make such a proposition.
He urged Israel to stop bombing Palestinian territory and Palestine to stop harassing Israeli civilian settlements.
“We believe that there will be no peace in the region without an independent, sovereign Palestine,” he said in Ankara after a cabinet meeting.
HAMAS THREATENS HOSTAGE EXECUTIONS
Hamas said it will start executing hostages for every civilian house bombed without warning.
The group’s spokesman, Abu Obaida, claimed children, women and prisoners of war have been kept safe under Islamic “religious and moral ethics”, but that could change after Israel hit more than 1,000 targets across the Gaza Strip.
“In the face of indiscriminately attacking our residential areas, killing women, children and elderly, and as our enemy does not understand the values or ethics, then we will speak to them in their own language,” he said in an audio recording.
“Therefore, we decided to put an end to this from this moment on. We announce that any targeting of innocent civilians without warning will be met, regretfully to say, by executing one of the hostages in our custody.
“And we will be forced to broadcast this execution,” he added. “It is a final warning and it is a final ultimatum”.
BREAKING AUDIO - Hamas threatened to kill hostages if the Israeli army carried out air strikes without prior warning targeting residents of the Gaza Strippic.twitter.com/XRngbiqbAs
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) October 9, 2023
DEATH TOLL RISES
The toll from the Hamas attack sits at least 900 Israelis dead so far, according to the Israeli Health Ministry. Another 500 were killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities.
More than 10 Britons and 9 Americans are thought to be dead, with more missing.
British man Daniel Darlington was confirmed dead by his sister Shelly Darlington. Writing on Instagram, she said he was “murdered by terrorists”.
ISRAEL POUNDS GAZA STRIP
More than 1000 targets have been hit inside the Gaza Strip, much of the town of Beit Hanoun in the northeast corner, the Israeli Defence Forces said.
The IDF released aerial footage of its bombardment in the Gaza Strip after Israel’s defence minister ordered a “complete siege” on the area in retaliation to Hamas’s weekend incursion.
Videos posted by Israel showed buildings crumbling into smoke and rubble.
‘FEAR, DESTRUCTION’: 120K PEOPLE DISPLACED
“The price the Gaza Strip will pay will be a very heavy one that will change reality for generations,” said Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in the town of Ofakim, which suffered casualties and had hostages taken.
Israel warned Gaza civilians to flee as Israeli tanks and troops amassed on the border of the Palestinian Strip.
The UN appealed for the creation of “humanitarian corridors” to bring food into Gaza.
More than 123,000 people have been displaced in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the conflict, mostly due to “fear, protection concerns and the destruction of their homes”, the UN said.
Of those, at least 73,000 Palestinians in Gaza are seeking shelter in schools the UN runs.
CONFLICT DRIVES UP PRICE OF OIL
Israeli forces and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have also now exchanged artillery and rocket fire in disputed territory in southern Lebanon, while in Egypt two Israeli tourists were shot dead along with a guide.
The expanding violence fuelled volatility on global markets including driving up the price of oil by almost 5 per cent.
IRAN DENIES HAMAS ATTACK INVOLVEMENT
While Iran congratulated Hamas on the attack its official mission to the United Nations said Tehran was not involved.
“The accusations linked to an Iranian role … are based on political reasons,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.
The Islamic republic, he said, does not intervene “in the decision-making of other countries, including Palestine”.
It comes after The Australian reported officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had worked with Hamas since August to devise Saturday’s air, land and sea incursions, according to sources cited by the media outlet.
FESTIVAL HORROR
About 3km from the Gaza border in Israel’s Negev desert, an outdoor rave party was in full swing when revellers began filming on their iPhones, black dots in the distant dawn sky.
They did not know what they were, nor could they ever imagine they were motorised paragliders carrying heavily armed Hamas fighters.
At the same time machine-clad terrorists had infiltrated Israel through breaches in the fence and were speeding across the desert towards them in vans and on motorbikes.
Other revellers at the outdoor Supernova Festival near Kibbutz Re’im, billed as a peace concert celebrating “friends, love and infinite freedom”, were used to the sight of rockets streaking across the sky, dismissing them and the sirens.
Then in footage, someone can be heard on camera appearing to be screaming a warning but he cannot be heard over the music.
For many they only realised there was something afoot when the music was switched off.
By then those black dots had landed. The vans and motorbikes were positioned outside the exits.
And then the killing began.
Terrified festival-goers, mostly aged in their 20s and 30s, fled on foot over the sand to their cars, screaming as shots were fired. Some were seen holding hands as they ran away while others shouted “go, go, go”.
In the capital, Tel Aviv, Anya Bonget had heard about a breach in national defences and reportedly rang her 21-year-old daughter Sofia to check she was safe.
“Mummy, they’re killing us,” was her reply. “They’re shooting at us.” Anya could hear screams in the background but Sofia hung up.
Sofia texted 30 minutes later and simply wrote “lucky to have the best parents in the world”, which Anya now says felt like a goodbye.
She would not hear from her again.
At least 260 bodies have so far been found at the site.
Emergency workers described the gruesome scene as a “massacre”.
A video has emerged on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that claims to show festival goers taking cover among shrubs or fallen trees, trying to hide from Hamas fighters.
FAMILIES SLAUGHTERED
Elsewhere whole families were being slaughtered or taken as hostages.
There was 69-year-old Hannah Ben-Artzi, a mother of three from Kfar Aviv, killed by a rocket while opening up a public shelter.
There were also six Bedouin children including five-year-old Yazan Zakaria Abu-Jama, fire and rescue workers, ambulance workers, 60 soldiers, 35 police and the list goes on.
In Kibbutz Nir Oz married couple Tamar and Yonatan Kedem and their young children Shachar, 6, Arbel, 6 and Omar, 4.
“An entire family vanished from the face of the earth,” Israeli diplomat Elad Strohmayer wrote on social media.
“More than 700 Israelis were massacred by Hamas terrorists and the death toll keeps rising. Remember their names.”
The names of the missing and suspected of having being taken hostage and now held by militants in Gaza are also now emerging.
The exact figure is not known but Hamas claims to be holding 100 hostages including a dozen Thai nationals while Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) claim to be holding another 30 multinationals.
Among those kidnapped was 10-year-old Erez Kalderon who was dragged by Hamas militants towards an opening in the border’s fence.
Video footage showed a terrified Erez snatched from his home in Nir Oz and marched through the streets by heavily-armed men.
His father Offer and 16-year-old sister Sahar were also taken.
“Everything I have in my life – my family – is missing,” sister Gaya Kalderson told Sky News.
“It feels like a horror movie that would never come true. But it did”.
Grandmother Ditza Helman was also snatched from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, with a Hamas fighter answering her phone when her desperate family called. Another grandmother Yaffa Adar, 85, was seen being bundled into a golf buggy at gunpoint.
“We saw the videos showing men with guns taking her to Gaza,” granddaughter Adva said.
“I cannot even imagine how scared she is, she’s 85, she’s sick and she has no medicine with her”.
A young mother, named as Shiri, was kidnapped along with her husband and young children, including a three-year-old toddler Ariel, 3 and nine-month-old son Kfir. Also taken were her elderly parents Yossi and Margit.
German tattooist Shani Louk, 30, was paraded by militants, filming themselves spitting on her semi-naked body, before she was killed.
Yoni Asher recounted seeing video of Palestinian gunmen seizing his wife and two small daughters after she took them to visit her mother.
“My two little girls, they’re only babies. They’re not even five years old and three years old,” he said.
Israel troops continued to fight to control the desert around Gaza bordering Israel where Hamas fighters continue to roam. Aerial drone footage showed dozens killed by missiles.
But Hamas has warned the fight back could inadvertently kill the hostages its troops are holding.
‘VERY SCARY’: AUSSIES HOLED UP IN ISRAEL
Thousands of Australians who have been caught up in the Israeli conflict are holed up in hotels or homes as they await advice on what to do next.
Alan and Marilyn Jankelowitz, who are visiting family in Rehovot, just 40km from Gaza, described being woken at 6am on Saturday to the sound of sirens and bombs dropping all around them.
One rocket landed just 300m from their apartment, leaving a giant crater and shrapnel damage to the building.
The couple, who are grandparents, have been in and out of an air raid shelter since the first attack on Saturday
“It’s very difficult and very scary and traumatic and one feels incredibly vulnerable,” Mr Jankelowitz, who has managed to book a flight home for himself and his wife for this Thursday, said.
Meanwhile, Brisbane-born Gabrielle Briner, 30, a freelance journalist who has lived in Israel for the past eight years, described how her fellow Israelis were in “complete shock and confusion” following the attack by Hamas on Saturday.
“I’ve never in my life felt like this,” Ms Briner said.
“It’s in the middle of the night, but I would say most people are awake. There’s hundreds of families with loved ones still missing, kidnapped,” she said.
“The streets are absolutely deserted. People are so scared, still in complete shock and confusion.
“It’s heartbreaking. There are so many dead. Seven hundred people died in one day, the biggest Israeli death toll in a single day since the holocaust.”
US FORCES MOVE IN
The United States has confirmed an entire carrier group including the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest and most potent warship with a full complement of advanced fighter jets, was on its way to the region with an escort of four destroyers and a cruiser.
But the move was as much a show of support to Israel as it was a deterrent to others who might see the Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war now as an opportunity to join in or mount its own attacks.
In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem condemned the US announcement as “an actual participation in the aggression against our people” and said the group would not be intimidated.
AUSTRALIA STANDS WITH ISRAEL
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined other world leaders, declaring Australia stood with Israel as he condemned the “abhorrent attack” and recognised Israel’s right to defend itself.
Australia’s Parliament House on Monday night would be illuminated in blue and white, the colours of the Israeli flag, a statement from the Parliament of Australia said.
“This is in line with the other significant buildings and monuments across the country,” it read.
ISRAEL REINFORCES BORDER
Israel said it had regained control over much of its territory, reinforced its border lines and killed hundreds of attackers and taken dozens more prisoner.
The escalation follows surging violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Conditions in the West Bank have worsened under Netanyahu’s hard-right government, with more Israeli raids and assaults by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages, and the Palestinian Authority called for an emergency Arab League meeting.
- with AFP
Originally published as Israel war: Hamas threatens to execute hostages; Israel orders Gaza’s ‘complete siege’
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