Palestinian Hamas terrorists parading the bodies of dead Israelis, civilians, children & soldiers around Gaza as tens of thousands of local residents cheer and hit bodies with sticks. On 7 October 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups named the attacks Operation Al-Aqsa Flood (or Deluge; Arabic: عملية طوفان الأقصى, romanized: ʿamaliyyat ṭūfān al-ʾAqṣā, usually romanised as "Tufan Al-Aqsa" or "Toofan Al-Aqsa"), while in Israel they are referred to as Black Saturday (Hebrew: השבת השחורה)[20] or the Simchat Torah Massacre (הטבח בשמחת תורה),[21] and internationally as the 7 October attack. The attacks consequently started the ongoing Israel–Hamas war. The attacks began early on 7 October with a barrage of at least 3,000 rockets launched against Israel and vehicle-transported and powered paraglider incursions into Israel. Hamas fighters breached the Gaza–Israel barrier, attacking military bases and massacring civilians in 21 communities, including Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, NetivHaasara, and Alumim. 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded while attending the Nova music festival. As of November 2023, the IDF estimated that about 3,000 terrorists invaded southern Israel, with additional waves of Gaza citizens entering through the breached fences later in the day. In total the attackers killed 1,139 people:[f] 695 Israeli civilians (including 38 children), 71 foreign nationals, and 373 members of the security forces. About 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip, including 30 children, with the stated goal to force Israel to exchange them for imprisoned Palestinians, including women and children. Reports of rape and sexual assault also emerged. Hamas officials denied the involvement of their fighters Israel, officially the State of Israel,[b] is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, the Red Sea to the south, Egypt to the southwest, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and the Palestinian territories – the West Bank along the east and the Gaza Strip along the southwest. Tel Aviv is the country's financial, economic, and technological center. Israel’s governmental seat is in its proclaimed capital of Jerusalem, although Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem is of limited international recognition The Gaza Strip (/ˈɡɑːzə/ ⓘ;[10] Arabic: قِطَاعُ غَزَّةَ Qiṭāʿ Ġazzah [qɪˈtˤɑːʕ ˈɣaz.za]), or simply Gaza, is a polity and the smaller of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the West Bank). On the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north.