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Mary Trump, an outspoken adversary of former President Trump, called him a “f‑‑‑ing maniac” in a social media post Monday. She specifically criticized Trump, who is her uncle, for his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and its possible relation to the war in Israel. “This f‑‑‑ing maniac likely gave Putin (who gave Iran, who gave Hamas) Israel’s national security secrets,” Mary Trump wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Plus, he divulged highly classified information about our nuclear subs to an Australian cardboard guy,” she added. “Why is he still allowed to roam free?” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday after the group launched a barrage of rocket strikes and entered the country in a surprise attack. In her post, Mary Trump shared a screenshot of her uncle’s comments on Truth Social that compared the ongoing situation in Israel to the U.S.-Mexico border, suggesting President Biden and former President Obama could be responsible for a Hamas attack on the U.S. “The same people that raided Israel are pouring into our once beautiful USA, through our TOTALLY OPEN SOUTHERN BORDER, at Record Numbers,” Trump posted. “Are they planning an attack within our Country? Crooked Joe Biden and his BOSS, Barack Hussein Obama, did this to us!” In a follow-up post, Mary Trump urged the public to join her newsletter and support her mission. “If you agree my uncle is unfit to be in the White House or anywhere but prison, please support my mission to get this f‑‑‑ing maniac off our TVs – and our streets,” she said. Mary Trump has been a prominent critic of Trump, even publishing a book titled “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.” STORY

Media cites intelligence sources saying Russian sabotage suspected after unusual drop in pressure Extensive damage to an undersea gas pipeline and communications cable connecting Finland and Estonia “could not have occurred by accident” and appears to be the result of a “deliberate … external act”, Finnish authorities have said. “It is likely that the damage to both the gas pipeline and the communication cable is the result of external activity,” the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, said on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday, adding that the cause of the damage was not yet clear. Local media cited unnamed government sources as saying Russian sabotage was suspected, while regional security experts said a Russian survey vessel had recently been observed making repeated visits to the vicinity of the Balticconnector pipeline. Petteri Orpo, the Finnish prime minister, told a press conference in Helsinki that a preliminary assessment suggested that “the observed damage could not have been caused by normal use of the pipeline or by pressure fluctuations”. Asked directly about the likelihood of Russian involvement, Orpo said he did not want to speculate on potential perpetrators before the investigation was complete. “It’s important … not to jump to conclusions at this stage,” he said. FULL STORY

Joe Biden on Tuesday pledged unflinching support for Israel, calling the assault by Hamas militants that left nearly 1,000 people dead an “act of sheer evil” and confirming that some US citizens are part of the many currently being held hostage. In a televised speech from the White House, the US president said at least 14 Americans were killed in last weekend’s attack by Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls Gaza, and a yet unknown number of Americans are being held hostage. The attack saw gunmen crossing the border from Gaza, raiding Israeli cities and gunning down civilians in their homes, cars and at a desert music festival. As many as 150 hostages are believed to have been taken. More than 900 people in Gaza have been killed in retaliatory Israeli airstrikes while enforcing a “blockade” that sealed off the besieged territory of 2.3 million people from food, fuel and other supplies. Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, later told reporters that “20 or more Americans” were unaccounted for following the weekend violence, though the number held captive by Hamas remains unclear. He said the US government was in regular contact with the families of the missing, some of whom have made public pleas to US and Israeli authorities for help locating their loved ones. “In this moment, we must be crystal clear: we stand with Israel,” Biden, flanked by vice-president Kamala Harris and US secretary of state Antony Blinken, said in a forceful speech, repeating: “We stand with Israel.” In a show of solidarity with Israel, the state department announced on Tuesday that Blinken will travel to Israel in the coming days. In his remarks from the White House State Dining Room, Biden was unequivocal in his condemnation of Hamas, calling it a terrorist organization whose “state purpose is the annihilation of the state of Israel and the murder of Jewish people”. “Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination,” he added, echoing the sentiment expressed in a rare joint statement by the leaders of the US, UK, France, Germany and Italy on Monday night. FULL STORY

Australian researchers have developed a way of highlighting changes in the brain that mark the progression of Parkinson’s disease years before physical symptoms show. Researchers at the Florey Institute and Austin Health in Melbourne have shown it is possible to detect signs of Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating neurodegenerative condition, by injecting patients with a synthetic compound, known as 18F-AV-133, designed to bind to a protein in the brain known as VMAT2. There is significant evidence that deficiency of VMAT2, an essential protein for neurotransmitter regulation, is linked to Parkinson’s disease.The F-AV-133 compound becomes concentrated in areas of the brain where VMAT2 is active, with researchers then able to conduct a PET scan to capture images that show the strength and areas of VMAT2 activity in the brain, creating an imaging biomarker. The researchers studied 26 patients with Parkinson’s disease, a control group of 12 people, and 11 people with Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep behaviour disorder, which is a significant indicator of Parkinson’s disease. Each person undertook two PET scans two years apart. The were no significant changes in clinical symptoms in any of the participants according to currently available assessments for Parkinson’s disease, which involve asking people questions about their symptoms. By contrast, the PET scans showed significant neuronal loss in three key regions of the brain in individuals with Parkinson’s disease, and in one key area of the brain in those with REM disorder, suggesting F-AV-133 is a more sensitive means of monitoring neurodegeneration. The findings were published in the international journal Neurology on Thursday. FULL STORY

"Where do we go? Is there a safe place left in this neighbourhood, which was so quiet and beautiful?" residents of an apartment block in Rimal asked me, with heavy sarcasm. I had just spent the most difficult seven hours of my life inside there, as Israeli warplanes carried another wave of air strikes in retaliation for the Palestinian militant group's unprecedented assault on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday. The Israeli strikes also caused significant damage to dozens of residential buildings, the offices of telecommunications companies and faculty buildings of the Islamic University of Gaza. Terrifying explosions shook the area throughout Monday night. Children were screaming and nobody had a moment's sleep. It was a night that the residents of Rimal - Gaza City's wealthiest neighbourhood and usually its quietest - will not forget for a long time. As dawn broke on Tuesday, the intensity of the strikes decreased and people discovered the extent of the destruction. The south-western neighbourhood's infrastructure was severely damaged and most roads leading to it were cut off. As I drove around it felt as if there had been an earthquake. There was rubble, shattered glass and severed wiring everywhere. Such was the devastation that I did not recognise some of the buildings that I passed. "I lost everything. My apartment, where my five children lived, was here in this building. My grocery shop below the building was destroyed," Mohammed Abu al-Kass told me while carrying his daughter Shahd in the street. "Where do we go? We have become homeless. There is no shelter for us anymore or work." "Are my house and my grocery shop a military target, Israel?" he added, accusing the Israeli military of lying when it says it does not target civilians. The Palestinian health ministry said that about 300 people, two thirds of them civilians, were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza on Monday. It was the deadliest day there for many years. At least 15 people were killed in the densely-populated Jabalia refugee camp, north-east of Gaza City, in the afternoon. The Israeli military said it targeted the home of a Hamas commander. But many people at a nearby market or in neighbouring houses were killed. FULL STORY

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The Italian military police stationed outside Turin's synagogue on Sunday. Italy’s interior ministry said it had ordered surveillance to be increased across the country. Photograph: Matteo Secci/AP Governments across Europe said they had bolstered security as Jewish groups warned that the surprise attacks by Hamas had led to a rise in antisemitic rhetoric online. In France, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, called on regional officials across the country to urgently put in place heightened security at synagogues and Jewish schools. “At a time when terrorist attacks from Gaza are hitting Israel, I ask you to immediately step up vigilance, security and protection of Jewish community sites in France,” he wrote in a message seen by AFP. Darmanin also called for the soldiers from France’s Opération Sentinelle, a special force that patrols streets and protects key sites, to be deployed in order to create a “visible and systematic” security presence. The surprise attacks had left many in France’s Jewish community reeling, said Samuel Lejoyeux of the Union of Jewish Students of France. “We woke up with a sense of dread,” he told Le Figaro newspaper. “We were reminded of a fragility we had forgotten. It’s a feeling similar to what we felt at the time of 11 September or the Bataclan [attacks].” His concerns were echoed by the Council of French Jewish Institutions. “We were very shocked and worried by this outburst of violence,” Pierre Haas of the council told AFP. The council, he added, was also wary about the “possibility of the conflict being imported to France”. In Germany, the police in Berlin said on social media they had filed complaints after being alerted to “people celebrating the attacks on Israel by handing out baked goods” along a main avenue. Soon after, the country’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said in a statement that the government would “not accept it when the heinous attacks against Israel are celebrated here on our streets”. The Central Council of Jews in Germany said they were in close contact with authorities and that police measures were being increased at Jewish institutions across the country. In London, the Metropolitan police said they had increased patrols across parts of the city amid a “number of incidents, including those that have been shared on social media, in relation to the ongoing conflict in Israel and [at] the border with Gaza”. FULL STORY

People watch the McDougall Creek wildfire in West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, in August 2023. Photograph: Darren Hull The damage caused by the climate crisis through extreme weather has cost $16m (£13m) an hour for the past 20 years, according to a new estimate. Storms, floods, heatwaves and droughts have taken many lives and destroyed swathes of property in recent decades, with global heating making the events more frequent and intense. The study is the first to calculate a global figure for the increased costs directly attributable to human-caused global heating. It found average costs of $140bn (£115bn) a year from 2000 to 2019, although the figure varies significantly from year to year. The latest data shows $280bn in costs in 2022. The researchers said lack of data, particularly in low-income countries, meant the figures were likely to be seriously underestimated. Additional climate costs, such as from crop yield declines and sea level rise, were also not included. The researchers produced the estimates by combining data on how much global heating worsened extreme weather events with economic data on losses. The study also found that the number of people affected by extreme weather because of the climate crisis was 1.2 billion over two decades. Two-thirds of the damage costs were due to the lives lost, while a third was due to property and other assets being destroyed. Storms, such as Hurricane Harvey and Cyclone Nargis, were responsible for two-thirds of the climate costs, with 16% from heatwaves and 10% from floods and droughts. FULL STORY

Former President Trump on Monday questioned Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats and hammered President Biden’s foreign policy amid unfolding violence in Israel. Trump, in remarks to supporters in New Hampshire, claimed Biden “betrayed Israel” and cited the terrorist attacks in Israel and ensuing fighting in Gaza as the latest example of a foreign conflict bubbling up during the Biden administration. “I can’t imagine how anybody who’s Jewish or anybody who loves Israel — and frankly, the evangelicals just love Israel — I can’t imagine anybody voting Democrat, let alone for this man, who’s totally — he was shot 30 years ago. He’s more shot now. But the problem was all caused by crooked Joe Biden,” Trump said. Trump spoke to supporters in Wolfeboro, days after the militant terrorist group Hamas launched an attack against Israel. More than 1,000 people total have died amid the fighting in Israel and Gaza. The State Department confirmed at least nine Americans were among those killed. “Less than four years ago, we had peace in the Middle East with the historic Abraham Accords. Today we have all-out war in Israel, and it’s going to spread very quickly” Trump said. “What a difference a president makes.” The former president said that upon retaking office, he would cut off any money going to Palestinians and would reimpose and expand a travel ban that targeted several majority-Muslim countries. Trump has repeatedly positioned himself as deeply supportive of Israel, citing his recognition of the Golan Heights territory, his relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and his administration’s signing of the Abraham Accords to normalize relations among countries in the Middle East. But he has also drawn backlash for frequently suggesting Jews who do not support him politically or who are not supportive of Israel are disloyal. Trump in September shared an image on social media telling “liberal Jews” to “make better choices” amid celebrations of the Jewish New Year. FULL STORY

Regardless of whether Iran plotted and ordered the massive Hamas attack against Israel over the weekend, Tehran’s backing and support for the Palestinian militant group sends a clear and defiant message to Washington. The U.S. has yet to confirm a direct involvement from Tehran in the operation, but officials acknowledge Iranians are indirectly complicit in training, funding and supporting Hamas. The Hamas invasion, the worst attack on Israel in 50 years, shows Tehran is increasingly willing to damage U.S. allies and, in effect, try to weaken American influence through proxy groups. It comes as Iran’s influence as a regional power appears on the rise. Jonathan Spyer, the director of research at the Middle East Forum, said Iran seeks to defeat Israel with a strategy of “death by a thousand cuts.” “They intend to reduce the morale of Israelis, to cause Israelis to lose faith in their institutions, to cause Israelis to quit Israel,” said Spyer. “That’s the reason why they’re backing Hamas. That’s the reason why they created Hezbollah. They intend to try to surround Israel with what we would call hybrid military forces.” Iran has denied any role in the brutal surprise attack by Hamas but has welcomed the news, reportedly with celebrations of what Iranians are calling a Palestinian victory. Both Hamas and Iran have publicly acknowledged a strategic partnership. They hold separate goals in the decades-long conflict with Jerusalem, but those aims appear to have aligned during the early Saturday attack, which has left hundreds dead in Israel and fighting still flaring up in the south near Gaza. Iran has for years been fighting a shadow war against Israel through proxy groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and others. Tehran considers Israel an American client state, hostile to Muslims. FULL STORY

US President Joe Biden has been interviewed as part of a probe into his handling of classified documents after he left the vice-presidency in 2017. Mr Biden met voluntarily with Special Counsel Robert Hur at the White House over two days, officials said. Mr Hur was appointed after a separate investigation was launched into secret documents found at Donald Trump's home. Mr Biden has not been charged with any crime. It is not unusual for presidents to be interviewed by investigators. Ian Sams, a spokesman for Mr Biden, said in a statement that the interview was conducted over the course of Sunday and Monday. It was personally carried out by Mr Hur, who was chosen by US Attorney General Merrick Garland to lead the investigation. He added that the interview had "concluded" by the end of Monday. "As we have said from the beginning, the President and the White House are cooperating with this investigation, and as it has been appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly, being as transparent as we can consistent with protecting and preserving the integrity of the investigation," Mr Sams told reporters. "We would refer other questions to the Justice Department at this time." The documents were discovered by aides to Mr Biden in an office he used after departing the vice-presidency, and before he launched his bid for the White House. FULL STORY

The Gaza Strip could be on the brink of a new humanitarian crisis if supplies are not allowed in, authorities say, as Israel responds to the Hamas attacks. On Monday, Israel declared a "complete siege" on the territory, saying electricity, food, fuel and water would be cut off. According to residents, aid has not reached the enclave since Saturday. BBC footage shows deserted streets covered with rubble from collapsed buildings following Israeli airstrikes. Nearly 700 people have died in these attacks and thousands more are reported to have been injured. The area is home to about 2.3 million people in total - 80% of whom rely on humanitarian aid mainly due to the ongoing hostilities with Israel. It is ruled by Hamas militants but Israel controls the airspace and its shoreline. It also restricts who and what goods can cross its borders. Neighbouring Egypt strictly controls what or who can pass through its border with Gaza too. Gaza hospital deluged as Israel retaliates with strikes Explained: What is Hamas, what is happening in Israel and the Gaza Strip and other questions Since the attacks began on Saturday morning, Israel has stopped all supplies entering Gaza, including food and medicine. Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general, said more than a dozen healthcare workers had been killed or injured and at least seven medical centres had been damaged. Meanwhile, many people are currently without electricity and internet, and could soon be out of essential food and water supplies. FULL STORY

Rescuers are digging for survivors of a powerful earthquake that flattened whole villages in Afghanistan, killing more than 1,000 people. The 6.3-magnitude quake struck Saturday morning in Herat province, a barren landscape dotted with mud brick homes. Villagers are still using shovels and bare hands to search for more than 500 people missing, the UN says. Aid, delayed by blocked routes and communication lines being down, only started to trickle in on Monday. There are fears the death toll could be much higher. The quake hit Zindajan, a rural district some 40km (25 miles) from Herat city, where "100% of homes are estimated to have been completely destroyed," according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). FULL STORY

On Saturday morning, people in Gaza celebrated after Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israel and launched deadly cross-border attacks. A day later, the picture was very different. After non-stop Israeli shelling, people were staying indoors. Explosions continued throughout Sunday. The sound was terrifying. Clouds of black smoke engulfed buildings across the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army says it has hit more than 1,000 targets in Gaza. These include military positions, the homes of the Hamas's leaders, as well as banks run by the militant group. One of the more significant Israeli strikes on Sunday morning targeted the Watan Tower, which serves as a hub for internet providers in Gaza. More on Israel-Gaza attacks Follow live: Latest updates Hostages: What we know about Israelis taken by Hamas Analysis: Israel blindsided, says Jeremy Bowen Explained: What's going on in Gaza and Israel, and why now? Palestinian health officials say more than 400 people have been killed in retaliatory Israeli air strikes on Gaza. Most areas are without electricity as Israel has stopped supplying Gaza with power. Gaza's own supplier can only provide 20% of the electricity needed. Food and water supplies have also been cut. Driving through the Gaza city centre on Sunday morning, I saw rubble blocking roads. Shops were closed, except for a few bakeries where long queues had formed. The escalation has made Gaza's dreadful humanitarian situation even worse. FULL STORY

Public inquiry into alleged actions of SAS units to begin amid victims’ families pleas for truth to be uncovered A public inquiry into allegations that 80 Afghans were summarily killed by members of three different British SAS units begins on Monday amid pleas from victims’ families to uncover the truth behind the deaths. Mansour Aziz, whose brother and sister-in-law were shot and killed while sleeping by British elite forces during a night raid on 6 August 2012, said he hoped the inquiry would establish why his home had been targeted. Two of their children were also shot and injured, and Aziz said he and the surviving family members wanted “to know the truth”. In a statement released via his lawyers, he said: “We are asking for the court to listen to these children and bring justice.” Leigh Day, the firm representing Aziz and other victims’ families, said that while there were Afghan news reports of civilians being killed or injured at the time, it was still not clear whether the incident was investigated internally by the SAS, then commanded by Gen Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, or the Royal Military Police. Afghans were repeatedly found killed at or near their homes following night raids by the SAS, often after allegedly producing weapons when separated from their wider family by British soldiers. In five incidents, lawyers representing victims say the number shot dead exceeded the number of weapons found. Despite years of concern about the incidents, the public inquiry was granted only late last year after years of legal challenges and investigative journalism, during a period in which some Conservative ministers had sought to dismiss the accusations. Judicial review proceedings were brought by the Saifullah and Noorzai families in 2019 and 2020. They claimed that the deaths of their family members were a consequence of a policy of extrajudicial killings that were subsequently covered up by the SAS and in Whitehall. FULL STORY

Former President Trump said Sunday that Hamas’s attacks on Israel and the Russia-Ukraine war would “never have happened” if he were president. “THE HORRIBLE ATTACK ON ISRAEL, MUCH LIKE THE ATTACK ON UKRAINE, WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IF I WERE PRESIDENT – ZERO CHANCE!” Trump wrote Sunday in a Truth Social post. Trump’s comments come one day after Hamas, the militant and political group that rules Gaza, launched the largest attack on Israel in decades early Saturday. Forces invaded multiple Israeli towns by land, sea and air and launched a barrage of rocket fire in some parts of the country. More than 1,100 people on both sides have died in the violence, while thousands of others were left injured. Hamas forces also captured multiple Israeli soldiers and civilians, according to The Associated Press (AP). Trump has lauded his own record helping Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his time in the White House, pointing to policy actions like support of Israel’s claim to Golan Heights as well as his administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the country’s capital and relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. The moving of the embassy was seen as a risk to the tensions in the region that went against years of U.S. policy to avoid establishing an embassy in the contested city, according to The Washington Post. On the day the U.S. Embassy opened in Jerusalem in May of 2018, dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers during mass protests at the boundary fence with Gaza. The Trump administration later blamed Hamas for the deaths, which marked the deadliest day there since a war between Hamas and Israel in 2014. Trump and Netanyahu shared a generally positive relationship during Trump’s time in the White House, though tensions flared up towards the end of his administration in 2020. In the months that followed the 2020 election, Trump reportedly blasted the Israeli leader, accusing him of disloyalty for his congratulatory message to President Biden. And late last year, Netanyahu railed against Trump’s dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, calling it “wrong and misplaced.” While speaking at an event in Waterloo, Iowa, on Saturday, Trump spoke on Hamas’s attacks, claiming they are the result of the U.S. being seen as “weak and ineffective.” “The Israeli attack was made because we are perceived as being weak and ineffective and with a really weak leader,” Trump said in an apparent swipe at President Biden. Biden was quick to offer his unwavering support to Israel in the hours following the attacks, telling Netanyahu the U.S. is prepared to offer “all appropriate means of support” to Israel. On Sunday, Biden informed Netanyahu that “additional assistance” was on its way to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), which is expected to arrive in the coming days. Trump’s latest comments on the Russia-Ukraine war do not come as much of a surprise, as the former president has repeatedly claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin “would have never gone into Ukraine” if Trump were president. Pointing to his seemingly positive relationship with Putin, Trump in August said he was the “apple of his [Putin’s] eye.” FULL STORY From Social Media.......

Sunday should have been the start of the working week and the return to school in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, with the end of the Jewish high holidays. Instead, the streets were virtually empty. Just a day ago, some of the hundreds of Palestinian gunmen who from Gaza were at large here and shocking events have continued to unfold nearby. Social media video shows Israeli forces pursuing militants who had stolen a car. They were killed in a dramatic shootout on the roadside. The only small crowds we encounter are by the Barzilai Medical Center. Weary medics stand by the entrance to the emergency ward. They have treated more than 400 patients because of the surprise attack by Hamas, the militant group which governs Gaza. "It was very difficult, a lot of casualties have been brought one after one, one after one very quickly," says the hospital's general director, Prof Hezi Levy. "I am very experienced, but I haven't seen in my life such a scenario." One 30-year-old man having a cigarette looks badly shaken. He tells me he is a medical worker from Tel Aviv but is here as a patient after joining an overnight dance party in the fields near Gaza which ended catastrophically on Saturday morning. He asks that I do not use his name. He has been shot in the hand, losing a finger, and has wounds on his head. "In the morning, the rocket fire started. Everyone got scared and started running towards the road to drive home. As we got on the road, the gunfire began. It was really shocking. People were murdered, there were car accidents," the man says. "I called the police. Nobody could help us. For an hour and a half, we sat inside a battle, helpless. Eventually I got into the car with some people. I'm a medic so I tried to evacuate two wounded. As I reached a junction I saw people in army fatigues - but they weren't military - they started firing at me." 'Like a horror movie' - festival-goers fled in hail of bullets Many Israelis I meet are shocked at how their powerful security forces were overwhelmed by the scale and complexity of the Hamas operation. Now there are complaints of a lack of help from the authorities. FULL STORY

The US says it is moving an aircraft carrier, ships and jets to the eastern Mediterranean and will also give Israel additional equipment and ammunition. It follows the Hamas attack on southern Israel, which President Biden called an "unprecedented and appalling assault". The US was also working to verify reports its citizens were among those killed and taken captive, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Israel says more than 600 people have been killed and 100 kidnapped. In Gaza, at least 313 people have been killed following retaliatory Israeli air strikes, according to Palestinian officials. US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, a missile cruiser and four missile destroyers were heading to the region. US fighter jets would also be sent. Further military aid to Israel would be sent in the coming days, the White House said, adding that the US was working to to ensure that Israel's enemies would not try to seek advantage from the situation. Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has expressed support for the Hamas attack, saying Israel needed to be held to account for endangering the region. Hamas has said assistance from Iran helped it carry out its attack, which involved rockets, drones and militants on paragliders and saw hundreds of fighters break through Israeli border fortifications around the Gaza Strip. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US had not seen evidence of direct Iranian involvement, but that Iran had been helping the Gaza-based group for years. "Hamas wouldn't be Hamas without the support that it's gotten over many years from Iran. We haven't yet seen direct evidence that Iran was behind this particular attack or involved. But the support over many years is clear," he told US TV. FULL STORY

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Israel: Gunmen from Gaza kill at least 22 in major attack At least 22 people have been killed in Israel after a major surprise attack with militants crossing into Israel from Gaza during heavy rocket fire. There are unconfirmed reports that a number of Israelis have been taken captive back into Gaza. Israel has launched waves of air strikes on targets in Gaza in response. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is "at war" has vowed that Hamas, Gaza's rulers, will "pay a price it has never known". The militants crossed the perimeter fence just after dawn, as barrages of rockets were launched from Gaza. The Israeli military has said that dozens of fighter jets are carrying out air strikes on Hamas sites in Gaza, and that it has mobilised tens of thousands of reservists. At least one Palestinian has been killed in the strikes, local health officials say. The rocket barrages from Gaza began just after dawn on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath and the day of the festival of Simchat Torah. As sirens sounded across Israel, the IDF announced that "terrorists" had infiltrated Israeli territory "in a number of different locations". It told civilians in southern and central areas to stay next to shelters, and inside shelters in the area surrounding Gaza. Footage posted online appeared to show a group of heavily armed Palestinian militants dressed in black fatigues driving around Sderot in a pick-up truck. In one video, the same militants seemed to be exchanging fire with Israeli forces on the streets of the town, which is only 1.6km (1 mile) from Gaza. There are also unconfirmed reports in the Palestinian media that a number of Israelis have been taken captive by militants and footage circulating of Palestinians in Gaza driving Israeli military vehicles. FULL STORY

Summary "We are at war," says Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu, after a surprise Palestinian attack saw hundreds of rockets hit Israel from Gaza Dozens of gunmen from the Islamist militant group Hamas appear to have infiltrated southern Israel About 545 people have been injured in the attacks, with at least 22 Israelis dead, according to Israeli officials A senior commander from Hamas claims thousands of rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel Mohammed Deif says the Palestinian militant group had "decided to say enough is enough" The Israeli military says it has begun striking targets in the Gaza strip in response "to the barrages of rockets" FULL STORY