There are also reports of a number of Israeli Soldiers taken captive by fighters, with hamas saying it has a big number of captives, among them senior officers. Israels military has been striking targets in gaza in response. At least 198 palestinians are confirmed dead there. The 1000 wounded. Over 1000 wounded. Richard galpin has the latest. This was a Surprise Attack on israel by the militant palestinian group, hamas. Its claiming its launched 5,000 rockets injust 20 minutes. Some have hit the city of ashkelon, causing damage. Amongst those on the ground, more hamas fighters heading into the battle. There is also footage apparently showing a captured israeli tank. A senior hamas commander has said the Militant Group had decided to say enough is enough. Here in the israeli town of sderot, the Emergency Services have been taking the injured to local hospitals. Its reported that militants have been taking control of some of the streets in the area. 0n social media, the israeli Prime Minister said he had ordered a large mobilisation of troops. Translation the enemy will pay a heavy price on a scale that it has never known. Meanwhile, i call on all citizens of israel to listen to the Home Front Command instructions. We are at war, and we will win. The palestinian president , mahmoud abbas, has spoken out, saying palestinians have a right to defend themselves from what he describes as terror of settlers and occupation troops. Palestinians are fleeing from the area as they anticipate retaliation by the Israeli Forces. Richard galpin, bbc news. Lots of reaction coming in. Benjamin netanyahu has spoken with President Biden who offered his full support. We have also heard in the last hour from foreign secretary, james cleverly, who condemned the attack. We have seen an unprecedented attack on israel. Reports of thousands of Rockets Being fired at civilian targets. And reports of arbitrary killings, murders, and kidnaps. We completely condemn, the uk, completely condemns, these Terrorist Acts against israel. We support israels right to self defence. Of course, we will be working closely with the Israeli Government. We already have had contact with them and we will continue to do so to protect Nationals British in israel and to try and bring peace as quickly as possible. What form does that support take . What support is britain ready to give to israel as they respond to these attacks by hamas . Of course, we will respond to requests from the Israeli Government. We will be in close contact with them and we will remain in close contact with them as this progresses. Of course, our priority in the short term is to help protect british nationals in israel. There is travel advice on the fcdo website. People should follow that if they are planning to travel to israel. They should follow the advice of the Israeli Defence force if they are already in israel. 0ne one new line to bring you, from gaza, the retallick tree attacks from israel retaliatory attacks. Interference the strikes injured several people and damaged an oxygen station. Msf saying this on twitter on x in the past few minutes. A nurse and ambulance driver among the almost 200 People Killed in the last few hours in gaza. 0urjerusalem bureau chief jo floto explained how fast moving and unprecedented the attacks have been. Well, we are seeing a massive aerial response from the Israeli Military. As you have just said, the figures we have got now is 198 killed. Hundreds wounded all across the gaza strip in the south, the centre, and in the north. Israeli media are now reporting more than 100 israelis have been killed and the wounded is in excess of 900. Its difficult to overstate how unprecedented this event is. This is a Nightmare Scenario for many israelis and certainly for the Israeli Military. Infiltration of hamas militants into towns and cities near the gaza strip. This wasnt supposed to happen. This was something that the idf was supposed to have prevented or taken steps to prevent. The Israeli Defence force. We have to go back decades, decades, before we get to this level of casualties amongst the israeli population. Its still ongoing. In sderot, were still hearing reports of gunfired, Rockets Being fired out of the gaza strip. Sirens are going off all the way near the gaza strip on the israeli towns and cities. We understand that dozens of hostages, both military and civilian, have been taken by hamas. Some are thought to be holed up in some of the small towns near the gaza strip. Others we know from footage thats been released by hamas and others have been taken back into the gaza strip. This is an extraordinary situation. One for which the Israeli Military may have planned, but it is unlikely that anyone, either political or military, will be entirely prepared for what this now means for the coming days and weeks. In terms of what is happening right now, jo, you mention sderot, a very active situation there, too. Is itjust militant activity in gaza that we are seeing or is hamas still firing rockets into israel . As i havejust said, rockets are still being fired but also these militants who infiltrated israel, something that wasnt supposed to happen, wasnt supposed to be possible, is still ongoing. There are exchanges of fire. That is what the israeli Prime Minister, benjamin netanyahu, says is his first priority, to restore order and get those people out of israel proper. But the scale of the hostagetaking is something that israel has never seen before. Do we have numbers on that . Do we have numbers on that, jo . And casualties. Dozens. We understand it is dozens of hostages. We cant verify the numbers at the moment. The military are keeping tight lipped about how many of those are soldiers. We have also seen bodies of soldiers recovered by hamas and displayed in gaza. One of the most shocking episodes today appears to have been at the scene of a party. It was an All Night Party being attended by thousands of israelis, who were celebrating the end of a majorjewish holiday here. It is very close, relatively close, to the gaza strip. In the early hours of this morning, they were overrun, it appears, by gunmen, almost indiscriminate shooting. We know there have been casualties. It appears that some of those revellers, some of those partygoers, have now ended up in gaza. We are getting reports of people tracking their relatives using iphone and Phone Tracking Devices and seeing that those devices are now within the gaza strip. We know that there were hours of gunfire around that party. There were a lot of civilians there. This is just to give you a flavour of how devastating this attack has been. Hamas has always said it wanted to do this. It has tried in the past. But never on this scale. Today, this morning, they used some kind of method to get through the fence, we saw a whole in the fence we saw a hole cut in the fence and motorcycles carrying gunmen streaming through the fence between gaza and israel. We saw microlights, paragliders, powered by engines, in the sky, flying into israel. As you have just mentioned, at the top of the programme, the Israeli Military reported that the navy has killed militants attempting to infiltrate israel by the sea. Land, sea, and air assaults. This is at a time when no one expected this to happen. Things have not been great in terms of relations between hamas and israel. There have been violent protests at the border for many days ahead of this lastjewish holiday. What we were told was that this was part of a negotiation to release more funds from qatar and egypt, to get israel to allow more permissions for Gazan Workers to come into israel and earn money. No one anticipated this would lead to what is obviously a very, very detailed, large scale coordinated attack. The hamas leadership must know and must have known that the response to this will be devastating from the Israeli Military. Were seeing already that that death toll is nearly 200. What we dont know is how the Israeli Military will plan to recover those hostages. We dont know if that is possible. In the past, a small number of hostages have been used to trade for prisoners, security prisoners, palestinian prisoners, being held in israeli jails. I dont think anyone is in the mood to negotiate at the moment, but this is a devastating blow to the Israeli Military today. It is something that has shocked the entire israeli country and the population of gaza will be shocked and surprised by what hamas has managed to do in conjunction with other Militant Groups. Jo, what are your thoughts on whether or not this could also widen to include hezbollah in lebanon and the west bank . The fear is that this will trigger something even more dangerous than we have seen today. It is difficult to use those words because today is bad enough. We anticipate this will get worse before it gets better. But we have seen statements from hezbollah, the lebanese Militant Group, in support of hamas. Whether or not they decide to engage in this is another matter altogether. The fact of the matter is that were they to do so, that would be an all out war, effectively, between israel and hezbollah, who control most of southern lebanon. But the Israeli Government will hold the entire lebanese government responsible for that. However, there are palestinian Militant Groups that are based in lebanon and have fired rockets into israel in the past. We are waiting to see what happens in the west bank. 0bviously, all of these Militant Groups are represented in the west bank and have been fighting for a long time. The casualties there in the last. Well, in this year, have already reached more than 200 on the palestinian side. So, it is a very active conflict area. And hamas will be justifying this for a number of reasons. For its defence, they say, of the holy sites in jerusalem, of the status of their own prisoners in israeli jails and they will be saying they want to bring the fight to the israeli public that is currently taking place in the west bank. How on earth this ends is a different matter. It does appear that there will need to be quite a lot of fighting before anyone is prepared to sit down and talk, but were getting ahead of ourselves, really. Lets show you the live pictures from gaza. You can still see smoke in the sky and ongoing retaliatory attacks. Palestinian officials telling us that almost 200 people have been killed. 1600 or more have been injured. Among the dead msf have sent an Ambulance Officer and a nurse because a hospital has been struck, two, in fact, nurse because a hospital has been struck, two, infact, in nurse because a hospital has been struck, two, in fact, in gaza. Well construe and deliver concerns about the infrastructure, not only how medicalfacilities the infrastructure, not only how medical facilities are coping but also possibly issues around electricity and water. Real concerns around. The official statement we have just had from the white house is here. Joe biden condemning the Terrorist Attacks in israel. He says the us unequivocally condemns this appalling assault. He has made it clear to mr netanyahu, we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the government and people of israel. Terrorism is neverjustified. Israel has a right to defend itself and its people. The us warns against any other party hostile to israel seeking advantage of this situation. My seeking advantage of this situation. My administrations support for israels security is rock solid. We are keeping in our prayers all the families who have been hurt and we are heartbroken by this many lives that have been tragically cut short. 0ne that have been tragically cut short. One of the big elements of this story which has been fluid and we have been trying to confirm for you is about the hostages. We understand they have been taken by hamas, hostages and islamic you had claiming they have taken hostages. I have just been sent a line from the idf islamichhad. They have confirmed to the media, the idf, that soldiers and civilians have been abducted. Earlier we heard that some senior officials, senior Military Personnel, were kidnapped. The idf has denied that. Hamas claiming it has taken 53 hostages. Interference we have been wondering if It Wasjust Interference we have been wondering if it was just military or if it was civilians as well and now we have this confirmation from the idf it is soldiers and it is civilians who have been abducted. Incredibly worrying a difficult time. Also, the idf saying, just coming to us now, that they are going to call up as many of their Reserve Forces, even Hundreds Of Thousands, as needed. You will know that Military Service is compulsory in israel. 0nce you will know that Military Service is compulsory in israel. Once they leave the military, and they begin their civilian lives, they can stand continue to train. The military think they will call up as many as a Reserve Forces as they can, even Hundreds Of Thousands if it is needed. Lets bring you an idea of how it is in gaza right now. Mohammed rafik who is a Freelance Journalist gave us this update on israels retaliation in gaza city. Nowhere is literally safe right now in gaza. We are witnessing a large and full scale retaliation from the Israeli Air Force in response to the military clashes across the borders. It is basically a lot of places including, lets say, residential compounds and public spaces have been targets of these air strikes with a Staggering Number of palestinians being injured and killed, as well. It has been six hours now since the clashes began. It has been marked. I have been talking to a lot of average citizens in here. Just trying to sense what it is feeling like. It is unprecedented scale and intensity. They are experiencing something that is very huge. Palestinians in gaza havent seen this escalation in Military Engagements since 2021. The war between hamas and palestinian factions in gaza and israel. Its now central areas within gaza have become targets of the raids that are being fired at, as the israeli army is being suggested, at Security Outposts and, like, places and posts associated with the governments in gaza. But a lot of people, including civilian people, have been targets of that air strikes. In some rural areas, neighbourhoods as well, close to the fence, lots of residents have been advised to evacuate in the face of the escalating combat. It is shocking and it is spreading a sense of fear amongst the residents, including myself. If they are told to evacuate, where do they go . It is not known until now. The situation is being unfolded at the rapid rate across the borders. Especially close to the Separation Fence where these Military Engagements are taking place at the moment. Speaking with lots of people there, they said they havent seen, and i can confirm, we havent seen footage of Palestinians Breaching into these towns beyond the barriers like this before. But i must also confirm that these live images that are unfolding, they evoke a complex mess of emotions in palestinians. It is like a hopeful celebration and concern. Because they have a sense that, yeah, we can return to the occupied lands. But, at the same time, they fear the possibility of an israeli potential long term counterattack. As mediators have become part of the situation right now, there is no solution, lets say, to be seen. At the moment, it is just expected to escalate rapidly. Speculations are valid at the moment. We are seeing, like, a situation that is basically horrific for palestinians in gaza. It wasnt like this six hours ago. It wasnt like this in the morning. The retaliation of the israeli air strikes has been increasing and escalating rapidly. Can you help us understand something for our viewers, who are also possibly horrified when they see some palestinians celebrating the death of israelis and the amount of israelis who have been killed and injured in the attacks. What are those people who are celebrating, how do you explain that to people . We are watching pictures of it happening right now. Yeah. Yeah, of course. At the end of the day, it is not a celebration of having People Killed, it is a celebration and a sense of hope for palestinians having been refugees in the gaza strip for over 75 years, they have a sense of hope that now make given those towns and villages are now being. Being evacuated, it is now maybe time for us, as refugees, who fled those towns and villages, it is time to return. They are now applauding behind the resistance factions and the political factions in gaza that this is time to keep striking. A lot of people are also speculating that it is not ending soon, whether we are escalating or not. There is a sense among the