Hamas has fired rockets toward the Israeli city of Ashkelon – as the country’s military said babies and children were among those killed during Saturday’s attack by the Palestinian militant group.
Israeli soldiers have been retrieving bodies from homes in the Kfar Aza kibbutz in southern Israel.
Israeli Major General Itai Veruv, escorting journalists at the scene, said: “You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers, in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms and how the terrorist kills them”, according to the Reuters news agency.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) told Sky News: “We cannot confirm any numbers. What happened in Kibbutz Kfar Aza is a massacre in which women, children, toddlers and elderly were brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action.”
The Israeli air force said it is carrying out an “extensive attack against terror targets” in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the lethal assault by Hamas at the weekend.
Some 900 Palestinians, including 260 children and 230 women, have died in the narrow territory and 4,600 have been injured in strikes so far, said Palestinian health authorities.
Over 1,000 people have been killed in Israel following Saturday’s Hamas attack, which Israeli officials have likened to their own 9/11 or Pearl Harbour.
Today’s key developments:
• Biden condemns lethal Hamas assault as “act of sheer evil”
• Bodies of 1,500 militants found, say Israeli authorities
• 30 missing people reportedly found alive and well in a kibbutz three days after Hamas attack
• More than 180,000 Gazans have been made homeless amid Israeli bombardment
• US offers hostage rescue support to Israel, Sky News confirms
Rockets fired
The Hamas rockets were fired towards Ashkelon from Gaza after Hamas’s deadline expired warning people living in the southern Israeli city they had until 5pm local time (3pm UK time) to leave.
The threat was from the Palestinian militant group’s armed wing, known as the al Qassam Brigades, which said it was in response to the “crime of the enemy”.
Sky’s international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn, reporting from near the scene, said Israeli Iron Dome rockets were launched to intercept the incoming barrage but some are believed to have got past the defence system.
A salvo of rockets was also fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel, reportedly by Palestinian factions. In turn, the Israeli military said it was responding with artillery fire.
It said 15 rockets were launched from Lebanon, including four which were intercepted and 10 that fell in open spaces.
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