Fighting against Hamas continues in multiple locations inside Israel after war formally declared
Israeli forces are actively fighting Hamas in two locations inside Israel, after the country formally declared war.
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, the international spokesperson for the IDF, told Sky News that Israeli troops have managed to regain control of some areas of southern Israel.
“There are two last pockets of fighting,” he said. “We have more or less stabilised control in all communities around Gaza.”
Earlier, the IDF said fighting was occurring in as many as eight locations.
It said it thought the situation would be in “a better place”, more than 48 hours since the beginning of the surprise attack.
More than 1,000 Palestinian targets hit – follow live updates
Lieutenant Colonel Hecht said he was unsure if more Hamas had come across the Gaza border.
“There could be a potential for more to come through. We are still looking at other options for them to infiltrate into Israel. We can’t deny that,” he said.
“We are trying to make sure our border is secure on the ground and in the sea.”
Other key developments include:
• Hundreds of Israelis are being held hostage by Hamas, including women, children and the elderly;
• Israeli civilians have been gunned down in towns, along roads and at a techno music festival being held in the desert near Gaza;
• The United Nations Security Council opted for no immediate action after an emergency meeting;
• More than 123,000 people have been displaced in Gaza, UN says.
Israel-Hamas War – watch special programme on Sky News tonight at 9pm.
Israeli forces moved to crush fighters still in southern towns and intensified their bombardment of the Gaza Strip with the number of dead reaching 1,100 and thousands wounded on both sides.
At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel and around 493 have died in Gaza as Israel retaliated with airstrikes in an operation which has been dubbed “Swords of Iron”.
The IDF said it had struck more than 1,000 targets inside the Gaza Strip, including airstrikes that levelled much of the town of Beit Hanoun in the northeast corner.
Explosions over Gaza City on Sunday. Pic: AP
The Israeli rescue service Zaka said its paramedics removed about 260 bodies from a music festival attended by thousands that came under attack.
The total number of dead is expected to be higher as other paramedic teams were working in the area.
Video on social media and Israeli news outlets showed dozens of festival-goers running through an open field as gunshots rang out. Many hid in nearby fruit orchards or were gunned down as they fled.
Damaged building in Ashkelon, Israel. Pic: AP
Israeli police take cover in Sderot
“It’s the darkest day in our history,” Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, spokesperson for the IDF, said.
“You could say it’s 9/11 and Pearl Harbor together for us,” he told Fox News.
Major Nir Dinar, also from the IDF, added: “They got us. They surprised us and they came fast from many spots – both from the air and the ground and the sea.”
By late Sunday, Israeli airstrikes destroyed 159 housing units across Gaza and severely damaged 1,210 others, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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Gaza ablaze as conflict enters third day
The declaration of war foreshadows heavier fighting ahead, and a major question is whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought increased casualties.
Meanwhile, in northern Israel, a brief exchange of strikes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group fanned fears that the fighting could expand into a wider regional war.
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip
During their rampage through southern Israel, militants dragged back into Gaza dozens of captives.
Authorities are still trying to determine how many civilians and soldiers were seized by Hamas fighters and taken back to Gaza.
Palestinians inspect damage in Gaza City
From videos and witnesses, the captives are known to include women, children and the elderly.
Hamas fighters crossed the Gaza border
Israeli cities targeted by Hamas rockets
The leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, Ziad Nakhaleh, said his group, which took part in the attack, is holding more than 30 Israelis, among dozens he said were captive in Gaza.
He said they would not be released until all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are freed.
Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told Arabic language news outlet al Ghad on Sunday that they were holding more than 100 people captive.
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Israeli city shocked by attack
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US secretary of state Antony Blinken said as many as 1,000 Hamas fighters were involved in the assault, a high figure that underscored the extent of planning by the militant group ruling Gaza.
Palestinians inspect a mosque destroyed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip
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Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters Hamas was using Beit Hanoun as a staging ground for attacks.
There was no immediate word on casualties in the town, with most of the community’s population of tens of thousands thought likely to have fled beforehand.
“We will continue to attack in this way, with this force, continuously, on all gathering (places) and routes” used by Hamas, Rear Admiral Hagari said.
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The faces of the people missing after the attack
At the UN, the United States called on all 15 members of the security council to strongly condemn “heinous terrorist attacks committed by Hamas” which has seen Israel declare war on the Palestinian organisation.
Donald Trump has agreed to send “top of the line weapons” to NATO to support Ukraine – and threatened Russia with “severe” tariffs if it doesn’t agree to end the war.
Speaking with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte during a meeting at the White House, the US president said: “We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them.
“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States,” he added, “going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”
Weapons being sent include surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries, which Ukraine has asked for to defend itself from Russian air strikes.
Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump also said he was “very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days.
The White House added that the US would put “secondary sanctions” on countries that buy oil from Russia if an agreement was not reached.
It comes after weeks of frustration from Mr Trump against Vladimir Putin’s refusal to agree to an end to the conflict, with the Russian leader telling the US president he would “not back down” from Moscow’s goals in Ukraine at the start of the month.
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Trump says Putin ‘talks nice and then bombs everybody’
During the briefing on Monday, Mr Trump said he had held calls with Mr Putin where he would think “that was a nice phone call,” but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”.
“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” he added.
Earlier this year, Mr Trump told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you’re gambling with World War Three” in a fiery White House meeting, and suggested Ukraine started the war against Russia as he sought to negotiate an end to the conflict.
After Mr Trump’s briefing, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram: “If this is all that Trump had in mind to say about Ukraine today, then all the steam has gone out.”
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Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy met with US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, where they “discussed the path to peace” by “strengthening Ukraine’s air defence, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe”.
He thanked both the envoy for the visit and Mr Trump “for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries”.
At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.
Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.
The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.
It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.
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In March, Sky’s Stuart Ramsay described escalating violence within Syria
The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.
Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.
But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.
It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.
Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.
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UK aims to build relationship with Syria
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Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.
That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.
The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.
The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.
Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.
He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.
Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.
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Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.
Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.
The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.
Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.
The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.
(L-R) Raffaele Sollecito, Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox. File pic: AP
Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.
Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.
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