The Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023: The bloodiest day in Israeli history

It was 6:29 am when a barrage of rockets rained down on Israel on Saturday, 7 October 2023.

These approximately 5,000 projectiles fired by Hamas marked the start of the terrorist attack dubbed "Al-Aqsa Flood".

The Palestinian militant group named its incursion after the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, located in Jerusalem.

The Iron Dome, Israel's defence system, was activated.

Alarms sound one after another in cities across Israel. But the defence system was quickly overwhelmed by the number of rockets fired, and some hit targets up to 80 kilometres inside Israeli territory.

At the same time, Hamas fighters armed with explosives and then bulldozers attacked the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Assailants on motorbikes and in vans used these breaches to strike their targets located mostly 30 minutes away.

They were supported by other commandos operating by sea with motorboats and even by air with paramotors, a type of motorised paraglider.

The scale and brutality of the assault shocks the international community.

Within two hours, the fighters of the Palestinian terrorist movement targeted Israeli military bases and kibbutzim.

The Nova music festival became the site of the largest massacre. More than 360 festival-goers are killed and 44 others taken hostage of the 3,000 partigoers who had gathered in the Negev desert.

In addition to these killings, there were victims of sexual assault. The UN reported rapes, torture and inhumane and degrading treatment.

Israel retaliated before 10 am the same day with its first strikes on Gaza.

Shortly after 11:30 am, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke, saying the country was at war. The same afternoon, 360,000 army reservists were mobilised to reinforce the 170,000 soldiers in the Israeli army.

By midday, Israeli forces regained ground, but it would take until 10 October for the army to declare that it had recaptured all the areas attacked by Hamas and other militants.

On 7 October, nearly 1,200 people, mainly civilians, were killed, and more than 250 others were taken back to Gaza as hostages.