War in Israel

I'm very sorry about what happened first. of all second of all can you tell me how. it started yes yes my wife and I and our. two daughters live in kibuts nalos which. is a beautiful community on the border. with Gaza and we are very proud and. still are to be members of this. community yesterday morning at 6: a.m. we heard a whistle and we realized that. bombs are. falling we are very attuned to these. kinds of things things and actually in.

every house in our community there is. what we call a safe room which is a room. that is built of very strong concrete. and has a special kind of door that is. supposed to withstand full of mortars. and Rockets and that's usually where the. children. sleep so we just ran to the safe room. closed the window closed the door and um. we just wait for it to be. over but then we started hearing. gunfire gunfire very close.

and it became closer and closer and. that's when we realized we're in a. different kind of event and we realized. that there are tourists inside our. neighborhood and at some point outside. our window we could hear them talk we. could hear them run we could hear them. you know shooting their guns at our. house at our. Windows uh there was no military. anywhere in. sight and at that moment we realized. that we are here.

alone we are going to have to stay in. there and and pray. [Music]. basically I have to say my my daughters. were real heroes our oldest is three and. a half years old and our younger is a. year and a half we told them they have. to be quiet and so for 9 hours my girls. have not eaten anything.

they have not gotten out of the safe. room we have no electricity we have no. phone we have no. light and around uh 3:30 I think it was. this is 9 and a half hours into the. ordeal we heard a big bang on the. concrete. window and we heard my father say aati. I'm. here we opened the door finally and he. came in with this group of soldiers we.

hugged them they hugged. us um then the difficult part began they. started bringing into our house families. that could no longer stay in theirs. wounded people people who don't know. where their loved ones are people who. heard terrorists walking inside their. house something that did not happen to. us and I think is way more. traumatic everybody was gaed in our. house and you saw all the pain of the. people and the fear of the children.

this went on for several hours and in. the middle of the night the soldiers. organized the bus came and took all of. us including my father now with us out. of the. kots I have to say we are very very. angry and. disappointed we felt. alone we're crying for help and nobody. came and when we were sitting there with. the girls and hearing the Kamas cell. outside our window.

my wife told me this is the yonip poor. war of our. life this is the Y po war of Our. [Music]. Generation from The New York Times I'm. Sabrina Tavern and this is the. daily over the weekend Palestinian. militants launched a stunning and highly. coordinated invasion of Israel rampaging.

through Israeli towns killing people in. their homes and on the streets and. taking. hostages today my colleague Isabelle. kersner on the biggest attack against. Israel in 50 years and the allout war. that it has now. prompted it's Monday October. 9th.

so Isabelle we all woke up Saturday. morning to this unbelievable news that. there had been this massive attack on. Israel and over the course of the day I. was absolutely glued to my phone and and. to your dispatches trying to understand. what on Earth was happening you know. this is not something we really ever see. an attack on this scale on Israeli.

territory how did the day start for. you well I I was woken up by a phone. call probably about an hour into the. beginning of the attack which began with. rocket fire and honestly there was such. a fog of what exactly was happening at. the time it really took most of the day. for details to emerge but as the hours. unfolded it became clear that this was a.

hugely coordinated invasion of Israel. carried out by militants from the Gaza. Strip which is a Palestinian territory. adjacent to Israel and the militants. were from Hamas the Islamic militant. group that controls the Gaza Strip and. those militants broke easily through the. fortifications On the Border reaching. more than 10 miles into Israeli. territory taking over houses taking over.

whole Villages coming by air land and. sea and as the events unfolded and the. day went on it became clear that this. was the broadest biggest invasion of. Israeli territory in 50 years okay so. let's start to unpack this when did it. begin and how did it begin so it began. at about 6:30 in the morning it was a. Saturday the day of the Sabbath here.

when most people would have been asleep. it was also a Jewish holiday of sukot. simat T which is usually a very festive. day which caps the high holy days of the. Autumn. season and people had really been. gearing up for a you know a nice weekend. and woke up. to barrages of Rocket fire.

Sirens going off all over the country. they were going off in Tel Aviv they. were going off in central. Jerusalem as the morning went. on there were scenes emerging on TV and. social media of tractors just crashing. through the Border fence on the Gaza. border we saw Columns of vehicles.

speeding through with nobody there to. stop. [Music]. them they were headed to the communities. along the border Villages kibuts and. small Cooperative. Villages once they reached these. communities and. towns they literally went house to house.

and started knocking on doors or. shooting their way. in and we began to see the most. terrifying scenes on TV of people. calling. in whispering and begging for. help saying I can hear gunmen they're.

outside my house or in some cases. they're inside my house maybe they kill. them I don't know and we're talking here. about families grandparents people with. young. [Music]. children and then it began to. emerge that there had also been an all. night Rave not far from the Gaza border. whoever tried to run way they were. shooting him from both sides and there.

were about 2,000 young Israelis who'd. spent the night there and then found. themselves surrounded by gunmen the. terrorist take took out people from the. car and just gunned them down shooting. into their cars shooting at them as they. ran on foot all the way people were. dying all the way on the road young. people so best were to hide it's there. were people hid in in bushes and among.

the trees for hours in this open rural. area being hunted by these. gunmen and it appears that both in the. Villages along the Gaza border and at. the Rave the militants were picking up. sometimes injured Israelis and in many. cases uninjured Israelis and just taking.

them into Gaza as. hostages there were whole families there. were young couples there were elderly. people this was a stunning and shocking. scenario a nightmare scenario for. [Music]. Israelis.

very soon after the rocket fire of. Saturday morning and the invasion of of. the gunmen the Israeli military puts. planes in the sky and starts to strike. in Gaza across the Gaza. Street and the government says it's. trying to target cells and launching. pads where the Rockets are being fired. from but we know the strikes are deadly.

and often inflict casualties on. Palestinian civilians there and soon. after. that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. comes on television with a recorded. statement and announces that Israel is. calling up reserves for a retaliatory. offense. in.

Gaza and says that we are at. War so this is just an extraordinary. attack on so many levels historic and a. complete shock do we have any sense of. how this happened how was Hamas able to. pull this off well that's the big. question that everybody here is now. asking because this was a complete.

surprise Israel was caught completely. off guard it's not clear how Hamas did. this but there are hints that uh from. from Israeli officials now that there's. been some Iranian help we know that Iran. has given logistical support to Hamas. for years and Hamas has just grown in. sophistication in terms of its military. machine we've seen over the years it's. Rockets reaching further and further.

into Israel but nothing on a scale like. this because this was clearly such a. well-planned and coordinated and. multi-pronged attack and how that could. have all happened without Israel. noticing is the question that everybody. here is now asking well let's talk about. that do we have a sense yet of how. Israel didn't see this coming well first. of all people are baffled because Israel.

has such a vaunted. intelligence apparatus you know so much. has been invested in that border fence. in the. fortifications for years you know Israel. was building a multi-billion shekele. barrier that reaches underground in. order to stop Hamas militants or other. militant groups coming into Israeli. territory through underground tunnels. this is an incredibly sophisticated.

structure with sensors cameras it's. being watched all the time there are. usually blimps in the air I mean the. fact that this was happening all along. the fence and that these forces heavily. armed forces were just driving straight. through Overland not underground and. reaching miles into Israeli territory. and nobody was there to stop them I mean. this was was just an incredible failure.

Israel was caught totally off. guard many people here are saying Israel. just took its eye off the ball and in. fact the focus of the last few months. for the military has been the West Bank. the occupied West Bank which is the. other major territory with a population. of millions of Palestinians and hundreds. of thousands of Jewish settlers living.

among them and where we've seen bursts. of violence and increasing friction over. the last few months and so they just. didn't see this. coming so they were totally. blindsided absolutely absolutely and the. shock of Saturday's events is now. reverberating in Israel and throughout. the region. [Music].

[Music]. we'll be right. [Music]. back Isabelle this attack just happened. and you're still sorting through the. details but I think the question many of. us have at this point is why now why did. Hamas attack Israel from Gaza.

now well we don't exactly know but Gaza. has long presented a challenge for. Israel on its border Gaza is a narrow. strip of land with 2 million. Palestinians living there many of them. are refugees and the descendants of. refugees from what was Palestine before. the state of Israel was founded and the. place has been under blockade by Israel.

and neighboring Egypt for the last 16. years ever since Hamas took control of. the Gaza Strip so Gaza has long been. compared by many to an open air prison. and frustration has just been growing up. there for years and years but when you. ask why. now there have been shifts in the. broader region for years many of the. Arab states refused to recognize or have.

diplomatic relations with Israel until. Israel and the Palestinians had found. some resolution to their conflict but. we've seen that beginning to change so. in 20120 we saw several Arab countries. deciding that they would normalize. relations with Israel while basically. bypassing the. Palestinians and now in the last few. weeks we've seen increasingly open.

declarations that Saudi Arabia which is. the big player in the region in this. respect is moving closer and closer to a. normalization deal with Israel and this. is something that would be very. threatening to Hamas and to the. Palestinians in general who may fear. being left behind and I assume this. attack an Israel's declaration of war.

makes it more complicated for Saudi. Arabia to normalize relations with. Israel I mean this deal could be a tough. sell for Saudi leaders if Israel is in. an allout war with Palestinians in Gaza. sure I mean the future path is now very. unclear but that could certainly be the. case so that's one potential motivation. preventing a deal between Israel and the. Saudis but we know Hamas isn't entirely. alone in the region it has a strong. backer and that's Iran how might Iran.

factor in here well Iran would be no fan. of this emerging Saudi deal with Israel. which is intended to strengthen the. anti-iranian axis in the region Iran and. Saudi Arabia are absolute Rivals and in. fact what we've seen now is the Iranian. president ibraim RI calling is H the. leader of Hamas and expressing his.

appreciation for Saturday's invasion of. Israeli territory and he's quoted in a. statement as saying you have made the. Islamic Nation happy with this. initiative I mean one thing that's. really remarkable here is that this. attack comes at a moment of real. upheaval inside Israel right we've been. covering this on the show they've been. rolling political crises about the.

future of the Judiciary in the country. but that's brought around a real soul. searching among Israelis and you know at. times it's brought the country to a. standstill there have been these rolling. strikes people are out on the streets do. we know if this played a role in the. timing of this attack well it's a really. interesting question it could very well. be that Hamas looked at what was going. on in Israel and all the upheaval and. thought that this might be a good time.

to take Israel on because Israel. appeared to be weak this upheaval the. Rifts in Israeli Society over the far. right government's plans to curb the. Judiciary have actually reached all the. way into the army and we've seen. thousands of Israeli reservists who've. been threatening and declaring in recent. months that that they would not show up.

for Duty as volunteers anymore because. they felt that this government was. undermining the democratic system that. they had signed up to defend but. actually what we've seen in the last 24. hours or 36 hours is an incredible. turnaround because we've seen the. country putting its differences aside at. least temporarily. to deal with what many here see as a.

dire National. Emergency and we've seen the protest. groups calling on the reservists to show. up and the military has been telling me. that actually in the callup of the. reserves they've had no refusals and I. spoke to one of the leaders of the. reservists who had been protesting. against the government and he said to me. of course I I've shown up for duty this.

is a time of a national emergency and. defending the citizens comes first. interesting so just a remarkable. turnaround I mean something we couldn't. have imagined just weeks ago right what. about the political class and what's. happening in high politics so even there. we're seeing now the the leaders of the. Centrist opposition parties who had. vowed just weeks ago never to sit in a. government. with Benjamin Netanyahu actually.

proposing forming a national Unity. government with him an emergency. government to see Israel through this. crisis so if Hamas had thought that it. was taking advantage of Israel's weakest. moments or one of its weakest moments. perhaps they will find that this is. backfired so Isabelle stepping back for. a minute here. this is really a defining moment for.

Israel as you said earlier on Saturday. morning Netanyahu made a declaration of. war what has he done since then so late. Saturday. night there was a meeting of the. security cabinet the first objective is. to clear out enemy forces and restore. security the second is to exact an. immense price from the enemy and the. third and in the early hours of Sunday. morning. the government put out a statement in.

which it said it was going to cut off. power electricity that it supplies to. the Gaza Strip as well as fuel and. goods Israel has continued with a. Relentless campaign of air. strikes it's now struck hundreds of. targets within the Gaza Strip entire. apartment buildings homes schools and.

even a mosque it's taken down multistory. buildings. there and of course uh warned Gaza. residents to move out of certain areas. and neighborhoods many people there have. nowhere to. go and so there is a huge amount of of. panic on the. ground we like everyone here are being. oppressed under the fire the bombing all.

night long this building 80 families. lived here and we're seeing the death. tolls on both sides rising and now we're. seeing the Army evacuating the residents. of the Israeli communities along the. Gaza border which is possibly an. indication of a much larger offensive to. come and that leads to the next question.

of whether Israel is planning to go into. Gaza with its Ground. Forces do you think that's a serious. risk I mean what are the chances Israel. will actually invade the Gaza Strip well. we don't know but if you listen to. netanyahu's words he has said that all. the sites in Gaza where Hamas is. deployed and is hiding and is operating. from he said we will turn them into.

Rubble he has told the gazans leave now. because we will operate forcefully. everywhere and I think you can't rule. out listening to those words that that. Israel will go as far as it feels it. needs to go to achieve its. [Music]. goals.

Isabelle thank. you thank you. [Music]. Sabrina by late in the night on Sunday. the death toll from the weekend's attack. had risen to 700 Israelis more than 400. Palestinians had been killed as Israel. struck back while the precise number of. Israelis captured and held hostage was. unknown a senior Hamas official said. Sunday that it was more than.

100 we'll be right. back here's what else you should know. today the death toll from two major. earthquakes in Northwestern Afghanistan. Rose to at least 813 people on Sunday. making the Quakes one of the deadliest. natural disasters to hit the country in. decades the two Earth earthquakes both. 6.3 magnitude occurred along.

Afghanistan's border with Iran they were. especially destructive because many. homes in the region are made from mud. and bricks and collapsed instantly when. the earthquake. struck and in a surprise decision over. the weekend the governor of California. Gavin Nome has vetoed a bill that would. have made his State the first in the. nation to Outlaw discrimination based on. a person's cast a social and religious.

hierarchy carried over from South Asia. proponents of the bill which was the. subject of a recent episode of The Daily. argued that it would increase awareness. of cast based discrimination and. encourage victims of it to come forward. but opponents many of them Hindu said it. unfairly targeted them because the cast. system is most commonly associated with. Hinduism in the end Nome sided with. opponents saying that the law was. unnecessary because California already.

prohibits discrimination on the basis of. ancestry religion and national. [Music]. origin today's episode was produced by. Rob zipco Sydney Harper and will Reed. with help from Lindsay Garrison it was. edited by Mark George and Lisa Chow. contains original music by Maran Lozano. and Rowan Nimo and was engineered by. Chris Wood special thanks to Patrick.

Kingsley who interviewed Amir tabon at. the top of the episode tabon is a. journalist at haret in Israeli newspaper. special thanks also to Shira Frankle our. theme music is by Jim brunberg and Ben. lansberg of. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the Daily. I'm Sabrina tavernes see you.

[Music]. tomorrow.