Up to 700 Israelis have reportedly died in attacks by Hamas militants as fighting continues and dozens of warplanes attack the Gaza Strip.
At least 413 Palestinians are confirmed dead, with a further 2,300 injured, according to the health ministry.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned people living in Gaza to leave as he vowed to turn parts of the territory “into rubble” in revenge for a “black day”.
The US military confirmed on Sunday it plans to move Navy ships and military aircraft closer to Israel in a show of support.
It is also sending additional support for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), which will increase in the coming days, President Joe Biden told Mr Netanyahu in a phone call.
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A huge barrage of rockets was launched into southern Israel on Saturday morning before Hamas gunmen crossed into the country in a surprise incursion.
Image: Explosions over Gaza City on Sunday. Pic: AP
Image: A map shows where attacks have happened within Israel
One Briton confirmed dead and two missing
Corporal Nathanel Young, a 20-year-old British man serving in the Israeli army, was among those killed as tributes were paid by his “heartbroken” family.
Another British citizen, 26-year-old Jake Marlowe, is “missing near Gaza”, the country’s embassy in the UK has told Sky News.
Dan Darlington, who is originally from the UK but has been living in Germany, is also missing on a trip to Israel.
Image: Nathanel Young, 20, died on Saturday, the Israel Defence Forces said
It is understood that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is in contact with and assisting the families of several people in the region.
The FCDO has updated its travel advice to advise against all but essential travel to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It warns against all travel to Gaza and areas close to the border including southwest of Ashkelon and west of Be’er Sheva among others.
Several airlines, including United, Delta, American and Air France have suspended flights to Tel Aviv until the situation improves.
Image: A mosque destroyed in Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip. Pic: AP
800 Hamas targets struck by Israeli forces
Up to 700 Israelis have been killed so far, according to Israeli media, while the health ministry said at least 1,590 people had been injured.
According to the Israeli rescue service Zaka, 260 bodies were found after one of the Hamas strikes hit a music festival.
An Israeli military official said “hundreds” of Hamas militants have been killed and dozens captured.
The IDF began an intense air strike in the Gaza Strip using dozens of fighter jets on Sunday.
It says it struck 800 targets, including a compound housing the Hamas intelligence department and a 14-storey tower that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City.
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Sky’s chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay has been to a police station in Sderot
Fighting continued overnight with the IDF still conducting operations around eight areas near the Gaza Strip, according to an IDF spokesman, while Hamas armed wing said on Sunday its fighters are still engaged in fierce clashes in several sites inside Israel.
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Shootout in Israel as motorists duck for cover
More than 100 kidnapped
The Israeli embassy to the United States said women and children were among more than 100 soldiers and civilians kidnapped by Hamas fighters and that active hostage situations are “ongoing”.
Two hostage situations had been “resolved”, according to the IDF spokesman, who did not say whether all the hostages had been rescued alive.
The Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group – one of the first to openly support the Hamas incursion – struck Israeli positions in a disputed area along the border with Syria’s Golan Heights and Israel responded with drone strikes on Hezbollah targets.
On Sunday, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari accused Hamas of being “more brutal than ISIS”.
“Israeli intelligence indicates that Hamas are hiding among Gazan civilians inside Gazan homes, in schools, hospitals and mosques. Hamas behaves like ISIS. I repeat, Hamas behaves like ISIS,” he said.
In Egypt, a policeman opened fire on Israeli tourists in Alexandria killing at least two Israelis and one Egyptian on Sunday, according to Egypt’s Interior Ministry as local media reported the suspect was detained.
Image: Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets in Ashkelon, southern Israel. Pic: Reuters
Netanyahu threatens to ‘turn Hamas to rubble’
Mr Netanyahu has said Israel is at war with Palestinian militants from Hamas and in a televised address said the country’s military would “take revenge for this black day”.
But he warned: “This war will take time. It will be difficult.”
In a statement on X, he wrote: “All of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble.
“I say to the residents of Gaza: Leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere.”
Rockets were seen landing on Gaza hours after Mr Netanyahu issued the threat, while much of the territory was thrown into darkness by nightfall after electricity from Israel was cut off earlier in the day.
Palestine’s representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said late on Sunday that messaging about Israel’s right to defend itself will be interpreted as a “licence to kill”.
While his Israeli counterpart, UN ambassador Gilad Erdan, told reporters at its headquarters in New York that it is the time to “obliterate Hamas terror infrastructure… so that such horrors are never committed again”.
Image: An Israeli police station destroyed in Sderot after a battle with Hamas fighters
Image: Israelis walk past the rubble of a building in Tel Aviv. Pic: AP
Leaders around the world have expressed their countries’ support for Israel.
Speaking on Sunday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned Hamas for its “appalling act of terror” and confirmed he had spoken to his Israeli counterpart again by phone.
“I want to express my absolute solidarity for the people of Israel. Now is not a time for equivocation and I am unequivocal,” he said.
“Hamas and the people who support Hamas are fully responsible for this appalling act of terror, for the murder of civilians and for the kidnapping of innocent people including children.”
More than 300 UK politicians, including serving cabinet ministers, wrote a letter of support to Israeli President Isaac Herzog on behalf of the all-party parliamentary group on Britain and Israel.
The government has also asked that all its buildings fly the Israeli flag in a show of solidarity.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would ramp up diplomatic efforts to restore peace between the two sides.
Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs said it was observing violence in the region with “grave concern”, particularly between Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israeli forces over the border.
Its counterpart in the United Arab Emirates urged that the international community “remain resolute in the face of these violent attempts to derail ongoing regional efforts aimed at dialogue, cooperation, and co-existence, and must not allow nihilistic destruction”.
Analysis: The consequences of Hamas’ attack will be truly terrifying for the people of Gaza
The seriousness of this moment cannot be overstated. It represents a truly bloody turning point in this decades-long conflict.
Short term, we can predict what will happen. An Israeli military ground operation into Gaza seems certain.
The civilian loss of life will be huge. The consequence of Saturday’s terrorism against Israel will be truly terrifying for the people of Gaza who cannot leave the blockaded strip.
Beyond that, so many unknowns. To what extent will the West Bank be drawn into the conflict? The Palestinian Authority which runs the West Bank (and cooperates with Israel) is distinct from Hamas who run Gaza. But across the West Bank, hopelessness has pushed people away from the moderation of their own leaders to the extremism of Hamas.
To the north, how will Hezbollah in Lebanon respond? Their well-rehearsed opportunist tactics are to attack from the north, to pressure Israel on another front. Lebanon’s broken politics and economy makes things even more dangerous.
Then there is the Hamas and Hezbollah puppet master, Iran. How will Israel respond to their conviction that all this is, in the end, an Iran problem?
The potential for spillover in the Israel-Palestinian conflict is always there. It’s just got so much more real.
‘Record year for Palestinians deaths’
Hamas gunmen targeted up to 22 locations in the initial assault, with gun battles continuing well after nightfall.
Hamas’ military wing claimed it was holding dozens of Israeli soldiers captive in “safe places” and tunnels in Gaza.
The Israeli military confirmed that a number of Israelis were abducted but would not give a figure.
Palestinian activist Nour Odeh, a former Palestinian Authority spokesperson, told NBC News that the attack comes after a record year for the number of Palestinians killed by Israel.
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Video shows aftermath of Gaza airstrike
Image: The ruins of a tower destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City
He said Saturday’s incursion was not the “beginning of the story” and that Israeli forces have occupied Palestinian territories for over 50 years.
Mr Odeh said: “It’s a record-setting year for the number of Palestinians killed, the number of Palestinian children killed, the number of homes demolished, the number of attacks by armed settlers that, you know, burned down homes and attack people and wounded and killed Palestinian civilians.”
Worldwide stock markets have plummeted for the second day running as the fallout from Donald Trump’s global tariffs continues.
While European and Asian markets suffered notable falls, American indexes were the worst hit, with Wall Street closing to a sea of red on Friday following Thursday’s rout – the worst day in US markets since the COVID-19 pandemic.
All three of the US’s major indexes were down by more than 5% at market close; The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 5.5%, the S&P 500 was 5.97% lower, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 5.82%.
The Nasdaq was also 22% below its record-high set in December, which indicates a bear market.
Ever since the US president announced the tariffs on Wednesday evening, analysts estimate that around $4.9trn (£3.8trn) has been wiped off the value of the global stock market.
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Mr Trump has remained unapologetic as the markets struggle, posting in all-caps on Truth Social before the markets closed that “only the weak will fail”.
The UK’s leading stock market, the FTSE 100, also suffered its worst daily drop in more than five years, closing 4.95% down, a level not seen since March 2020.
And the Japanese exchange Nikkei 225 dropped by 2.75% at end of trading, down 20% from its recent peak in July last year.
Image: US indexes had the worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. Pic: Reuters
Trump holds trade deal talks – reports
It comes as a source told CNN that Mr Trump has been in discussions with Vietnamese, Indianand Israelirepresentatives to negotiate bespoke trade deals that could alleviate proposed tariffs on those countries before a deadline next week.
The source told the US broadcaster the talks were being held in advance of the reciprocal levies going into effect next week.
Vietnam faced one of the highest reciprocal tariffs announced by the US president this week, with 46% rates on imports. Israeli imports face a 17% rate, and Indian goods will be subject to 26% tariffs.
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China – hit with 34% tariffs on imported goods – has also announced it will issue its own levy of the same rate on US imports.
Mr Trump said China “played it wrong” and “panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do” in another all-caps Truth Social post earlier on Friday.
Later, on Air Force One, the US president told reporters that “the beauty” of the tariffs is that they allow for negotiations, referencing talks with Chinese company ByteDance on the sale of social media app TikTok.
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Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump
He said: “We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, ‘We’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs?’
“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.”
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Image: Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
Image: The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.