Israel confirms soldiers and civilians taken hostage by militants

London, Oct 7 (IANS) Dozens of Israelis are believed to have been captured by Palestinian militants in an unprecedented assault into the Israeli territory, a media report said.

At least 70 people in Israel have been confirmed killed, with hundreds of others being treated in hospitals, according to emergency services. Nearly 200 people have been killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes in the Gaza strip, officials there say, BBC reported.

Hamas commander Mohammed Deif said the Palestinian militant group had "decided to say enough is enough".

In its statement, the Israeli army also confirmed that there are hostage situations in the kibbutzes of Ofakim and Be'eri. It said special forces are involved and "live firefights" are ongoing.

Separately, the army confirmed Israeli soldiers have been killed, but did not provide numbers, BBC reported. Meanwhile, Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war, will be remembered as an intelligence failure for the ages, The Guardian reported.

In the space of several hours, dozens of Gaza militants broke through the border fence into southern Israel, surprising local military positions.

Gunmen kidnapped and murdered Israelis in the southern border communities, filming their assault as they advanced in numerous locations. In one instance, a Gaza television journalist delivered a stand-up report about one attack from inside Israel, an almost unthinkable moment.

While the images of several thousand rockets sectoring the sky has become familiar over the years during the periodic upticks in fighting around Gaza, the footage of Hamas assault teams moving through the streets in communities such as Sderot, blowing the gates of a kibbutz and firing on passing cars and pedestrians, showed scenes not witnessed by most Israelis, for whom short-lived attacks in cities have become a fact of life.

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