JERUSALEM - Israeli forces battled holdout Hamas fighters and pounded targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a “long and difficult” war ahead after the Palestinian militants launched a massive surprise attack.

Gunfights raged in towns and on highways as the Israeli army deployed tens of thousands of forces to secure southern desert regions near the coastal enclave, aiming to rescue Israeli hostages and then evacuate the entire region within 24 hours.

“We’ll reach each and every community till we kill every terrorist in Israel,” vowed military spokesman Daniel Hagari, a day after hundreds of Hamas fighters crossed into Israel using vehicles, boats and even motorised paragliders.

“Our mission for the upcoming 24 hours is to evacuate all residents” from areas around the Gaza Strip, he told journalists amid the fighting that has left hundreds dead on both sides.

The conflict’s worst escalation in decades has claimed more than 600 lives on the Israeli side, the government press office said, while Gaza officials reported at least 370 deaths, with thousands more wounded on each side.

There was widespread shock and dismay in Israel after at least 100 citizens were reported captured by Hamas gunmen and abducted into Gaza, with images circulating on social media of bloodied hostages and distraught relatives pleading for the state to rescue them.

Ms Yifat Zailer, 37, said she was horrified to see online video footage from inside Gaza that showed her female cousin and the woman’s children, aged nine months and three years.

“That’s the only confirmation we have,” she told AFP by phone, her voice breaking, and adding there was no information on her cousin’s husband and her elderly parents.

“After the army took control of the kibbutz, they weren’t at home,” she said. “We assume they were kidnapped... We want to know what their condition is, we want them to return safe. They’re innocent civilians.”

Israel also came under attack from the north on Sunday when Lebanon’s Hizbollah launched guided missiles and artillery shells “in solidarity” with the unprecedented Hamas offensive, without causing any casualties.

Israel responded with artillery strikes across the United Nations-patrolled border. “We recommend Hizbollah not to come into this,” said army spokesman Richard Hecht. “If they come, we are ready.”

Israel was stunned when Gaza’s rulers Hamas launched a multi-pronged assault at dawn on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, raining down thousands of rockets as fighters infiltrated towns and kibbutz communities and stormed an outdoor rave party held under the desert sky.

Panicked Israelis phoned media outlets as they hid in their homes from militants going door to door and shooting civilians or dragging them away.

Two Thai nationals were among those killed, and other Asian nationals, thousands of whom work as farm labourers in the region, were believed to be among the hostages.

Gun battles still raged on Sunday between Israeli forces and hundreds of Hamas fighters in multiple locations, including at a police station in Sderot where police and special forces “neutralised 10 armed terrorists”, police said.

“A lot of people have been killed,” said Mr Hecht, after the military released the names of 26 dead soldiers. “We lost soldiers, lost commanders and lost a lot of civilians.

“We are completing efforts to retake full control of Israeli territory from Hamas,” he added, reporting that the army had struck 426 Hamas targets including Gaza tunnels, buildings and other infrastructure.

No respite

Global concern has mounted, with Western capitals condemning the attack by Hamas, which Washington and Brussels consider a terrorist group, while Israel’s foes, including Iran and Hizbollah, praised the assault.

Anti-Israel protests have flared in some Muslim countries, and Germany and France were among nations stepping up security around Jewish temples and schools.

In the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a police officer opened fire “at random” on Israeli tourists on Sunday, killing two of them and their Egyptian guide before he was arrested.

Mr Netanyahu – who leads a hard-right government but has received support from political opponents during Israel’s national emergency – has vowed to turn Hamas hideouts “to rubble” and urged Palestinians there to flee as devastating air strikes continued.

“We are embarking on a long and difficult war that was forced on us by a murderous Hamas attack,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“The first stage is ending at this time with the destruction of the vast majority of the enemy forces that infiltrated our territory,” he added, pledging no “respite” until victory.

US President Joe Biden on Saturday voiced “rock solid and unwavering” support for its key regional ally Israel and warned “against any other party hostile to Israel seeking advantage in this situation”.

But early on Sunday, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hizbollah movement joined the fray from the north. It said it had fired “large numbers of artillery shells and guided missiles” at positions in contested border areas “in solidarity” with Hamas.

Israel’s army massed tanks in the northern region after earlier firing artillery on Lebanon in response to a shot from the area.

Liberate our land

Hamas has labelled its major attack “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” and called on “resistance fighters in the West Bank” as well as in “Arab and Islamic nations” to join the battle.

Its attack came half a century after the outbreak of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, stunning Israel and sparking bitter recriminations inside the country on what has been widely considered an enormous intelligence failure.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday predicted “victory” and vowed to press ahead with “the battle to liberate our land and our prisoners languishing in occupation prisons”.

Hamas said on Saturday it had fired 5,000 rockets, while Israel reported more than 3,000 incoming projectiles. Several bypassed the Iron Dome missile defence system and smashed into buildings as far away as Tel Aviv.

Under the cover of the rocket barrage, Hamas fighters smashed the Gaza fence and crossed into Israel.

Israel responded by rushing forces to the embattled south, calling up reservists and hitting Gaza in operation “Swords of Iron”, with some observers predicting a possible ground invasion of the strip.

Israeli attacks have reduced several Gaza residential towers to rubble in what the army said were strikes aimed at Hamas facilities and which had followed warning calls for people inside to evacuate.

Another strike completely destroyed a mosque in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, leading to Israel’s crippling blockade of the impoverished enclave of 2.3 million people on the Mediterranean coast.

Israel and Hamas have fought several wars since, with the latest large-scale military exchange in May killing 34 Palestinians and one Israeli.

The new war follows months of rising violence in the occupied West Bank and tensions around Gaza’s border and at contested holy sites in Jerusalem.

Before Saturday, the violence this year had killed at least 247 Palestinians, 32 Israelis and two foreigners, including combatants and civilians, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Violence has flared again in the West Bank since Saturday, leaving at least seven Palestinians dead in clashes, according to the health ministry in Ramallah.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged “all diplomatic efforts to avoid a wider conflagration” and stressed that “only through negotiation leading to a two-state solution can peace be achieved”. AFP