“Where is the army,” Amit Man, 22, texted her circle of relatives after hiding from Hamas attackers for 5 hours, prior to she used to be shot and killed. Others concealed in the woods, barricaded themselves in protected rooms and waited for as many as 26 hours for assist to arrive.
The gradual reaction of Israeli forces on Saturday, a countrywide vacation, gave Hamas terrorists many hours to infiltrate greater than 20 cities out of doors of Gaza, the place they killed no less than 1,200 other folks and took an estimated 150 hostages.
Israeli officers declined to resolution questions on the timing in their reaction to the assaults. Here’s what we learn about the timeline of a few of the deadliest occasions and the professional reaction, according to interviews with survivors and their members of the family, and an research of footage and video.
Before 6:30 a.m.
Israeli reaction
But the caution wasn’t acted upon, both as a result of the squaddies didn’t obtain it or the squaddies didn’t learn it.
The rockets lit up the crack of dawn sky at an all-night competition, and concertgoers started to evacuate.
Around 6:30 a.m.
Shirley Okev went to a protected room in Kfar Azza, a close-by village. She would no longer depart for greater than 20 hours. She contacted her son to alert the military. “But the army didn’t come fast, we waited for a long time,” she mentioned.
6:31 a.m.
Israeli reaction
The Israeli army’s reaction to the rockets used to be speedy, however it mentioned not anything of a flooring invasion.
6:35 a.m.
Around the similar time in Alumim, Sarit Kurtzman heard rocket sirens and rushed into her protected room together with her 14-month-old child. She would keep there for 26 hours till assist arrived.
half-hour after assaults started
7:04 a.m.
Mr. Itzik would safe haven for a minimum of 8 extra hours prior to squaddies arrived to rescue him.
“The army wasn’t in the area, not even one soldier.” He added: “We were all by ourselves. It was terrifying.”
An hour after assaults started
Around 7:30 a.m.
By now, many civilians have been killed in cities round the Gaza border, together with in Sderot, the place gun battles had been ongoing.
Around 7:30 a.m.
Many attendees fled their automobiles and ran throughout fields. Mr. Senior and his pals drove off-road in an strive to achieve protection.
7:40 a.m.
Israeli reaction
The Israeli army reported that Hamas militants had crossed the border and advised civilians to keep of their houses. But other folks at house had been in grave threat.
7:52 a.m.
“I have a lot of wounded and dead here,” Amit Man texted her circle of relatives from the small Be’eri hospital the place she cared for sufferers. “I have no way to help.”
About 8 a.m.
“It wasn’t quiet even for a second,” she mentioned. “We kept hearing shootings, vehicles, motorcycles.” At least considered one of her pals is lacking and every other is useless.
2 hours after assaults started
8:23 a.m.
Israeli reaction
Israel declared a state of alert for struggle. “Over the past hour, the Hamas terrorist organization launched massive barrages of rockets from Gaza into Israel, and its terrorist operatives have infiltrated into Israel in a number of different locations in the south.”
8:26 a.m.
“They are here,” Sahar Kalderon, 16, wrote to her sister, Gaya, in a textual content message. It used to be the remaining Gaya heard from part of her circle of relatives, who lived in Nahal Oz.
8:53 a.m.
At least seven bloodied our bodies of civilians had been present in a room after an assault on the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, footage display.
3 hours after assaults started
9:23 a.m.
Dash cam pictures from a automotive parked north of the competition presentations Hamas terrorists dragging away a civilian and executing every other.
9:30 a.m.
Later, pictures circulating on social media confirmed his spouse, Shiri, and their two kids — considered one of them simply 9 months outdated — imprisoned by means of Palestinian militants.
There used to be no signal of Mr. Bibas.
9:32 a.m.
Photographs taken round the similar time display attackers bringing Israeli civilians — together with a person, two aged girls and a tender lady — to Gaza from Kfar Azza as hostages.
Hatem Ali/Associated Press
10:06 a.m.
Israeli reaction
Over 3 and a part hours after the assaults started, Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant mentioned Israel used to be at struggle.
4 hours after assaults started
About 10:35 a.m.
Militants broke into the house of Irit Lahav in Nir Oz. “We were trying not to even breathe,” she mentioned. “We were hugging on the floor, holding each other and telling each other how much we love each other.”
10:46 a.m.
Israeli reaction
Israel introduced it used to be hanging goals in Gaza. But many of us on the flooring had been nonetheless on their very own.
10:54 a.m.
5 hours after assaults started
11:35 a.m.
Israeli reaction
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel made his first observation to the country on the disaster. He instructed Israelis that they had been at struggle.
11:44 a.m.
From the Be’eri hospital, Ms. Man messaged her circle of relatives asking when the military would come. “I don’t understand,” she wrote. “It’s been hours already.”
12:09 p.m.
Dash cam pictures from a automotive left close to the competition presentations every other crew of militants strolling by means of and rifling via non-public pieces of an achieved person, indicating the space round competition used to be nonetheless unsecured just about six hours after the assault started. Concert attendees had been nonetheless hiding in undergrowth and the surrounding nation-state.
6 hours after assaults started
12:21 p.m.
Israeli reaction
The Israeli army introduced it had despatched troops and reserve forces to southern Israel to reclaim cities taken by means of Hamas attackers.
7 hours after assaults started
1:50 p.m.
Israeli reaction
2:02 p.m.
Minutes later, her sister reached her by means of telephone. Ms. Man mentioned she have been shot in the legs, attackers had murdered everybody else and she or he didn’t suppose she would live to tell the tale. The line dropped. More than two days later, her circle of relatives won news that her frame have been discovered.
“We told her that any time the military will get inside and get them out,” her sister mentioned later. “We really believed in that. I promised her.”
“We never never imagined, in our worst dream, that she would not make it, that the soldiers would not be there in time to rescue them and to save them,” she mentioned.
8 hours after assaults started
2:30 p.m.
In Nir Oz, Irit Lahav heard other folks smash into her house once more, 4 hours after the first break-in. “We kept hoping for help,” she mentioned.
11 hours after assaults started
5:24 p.m
“Does anyone know where the army is?” a Nir Oz resident wrote in an area WhatsApp crew noticed by means of The New York Times.
About 6 p.m.
Israeli reaction
Elsewhere in the kibbutz, Ms. Lahav and her daughter had been additionally rescued. They emerged to see that the the town’s dozens of bicycles have been stolen, automobiles have been burned and homes have been looted. The attackers, she famous, “had plenty of time.”
12 hours after assaults started
About 7 p.m.
Israeli reaction
The rescued Nir Oz citizens accrued in a kindergarten. “We realized that it was only about half of the people from the kibbutz,” mentioned Lotus Lahav, Ms. Lahav’s daughter.
7:11 p.m
Israeli reaction
The Israeli army reported that it had struck down attackers in southern cities in the previous few hours, together with 4 opponents in Nir Oz and Erez Crossing. It mentioned it had “neutralized” masses general.
16 hours after assaults started
About 11 p.m.
Israeli reaction
Soldiers rescued Mika Atiia and Dvir Efrat in Be’eri.
20 hours after assaults started
About 3 a.m., Oct. 8
Israeli reaction
In Kfar Azza, Ms. Okev used to be rescued from a protected room.
Israeli officers are simply starting to reckon with the wide variety of logistical and intelligence lapses that paved the method for the Gazan incursion into southern Israel and the not on time Israeli reaction. The complete scale of the atrocities dedicated by means of Hamas terrorists on Saturday continues to be being exposed and understood.
By Monday morning, Israeli squaddies had been nonetheless preventing militants in no less than six cities, and periodic clashes persisted even after an Israeli army spokesman mentioned the army had regained keep an eye on of all communities.
An estimated 260 other folks can have died round the web site of the competition, and 108 our bodies had been recovered from Be’eri. In Kfar Azza, ratings, or most likely masses, of other folks had been killed, squaddies and rescue employees mentioned.
But days after the assaults, citizens had been nonetheless ready on the army for yet one more factor: convalescing our bodies. In Nir Oz, Mr. Itzik, the retired nurse, mentioned he may start to establish our bodies, however that it used to be the army that wanted to notify households.
“I can’t tell their family that they are dead. It’s not my job to do it. I’m not allowed to,” Mr. Itzik mentioned.
Mr. Itzik mentioned members of the family instructed him, “We can’t wait for I don’t know how many weeks or days or months to hear from the army.”