Hundreds dead as war erupts after surprise Hamas attack catches Israel off guard

The latest:

Backed by a barrage of rockets, dozens of Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and into nearby Israeli towns, killing scores and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise early-morning attack during a major Jewish holiday on Saturday.

A stunned Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza, with its prime minister saying the country is now at war with Hamas and vowing to inflict an "unprecedented price."

In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 24 kilometres from the Gaza border. In some places, they roamed for hours, gunning down civilians and soldiers as Israel's military scrambled to muster a response.

Gun battles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns. Militants occupied a police station in a third town, where Israeli forces struggled until Sunday morning to finally reclaim the building.

Before daybreak Sunday, militants fired more rockets from Gaza, hitting a hospital in the Israeli coastal town of Ashkelon.

The hospital sustained damage, said senior hospital official Tal Bergman. Video provided by Barzilai Medical Center showed a large hole punched into a wall and chunks of debris scattered on the ground of what appeared to an empty rooms and a hallway. There was no report of casualties.

The Israeli military also issued warnings in Arabic, early Sunday, telling Palestinian residents of communities near the Israel-Gaza border to leave their homes and move to areas deeper inside the tiny enclave.

Palestinian communities near the border were hit particularly hard in previous Israel-Hamas fighting on Gazan soil, both by artillery fire and at times by ground incursions.

Israel's national rescue service said at least 250 people were killed and 1,500 wounded, making it the deadliest attack in Israel in decades. At least 232 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and at least 1,700 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Hamas fighters took an unknown number of civilians and soldiers captive into Gaza — a deeply sensitive issue for Israel — in harrowing scenes posted on social media videos.

Hamas, which advocates Israel's destruction, said the attack was driven by what it said were Israel's escalated attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, as well as against Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

"This is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on Earth," Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif said, announcing the start of the operation in a broadcast on Hamas media and calling on Palestinians everywhere to fight.

Gaza has been devastated by four wars and countless skirmishes between Hamas and Israel since the militants seized control of the strip in 2007. But the scenes of violence inside Israel itself were beyond anything seen there, even at the height of the Palestinian intifada uprisings of past decades.