A horrific series of attacks that stunned the world and the deadly round-the-clock response that has raised fears of broader violence in the Middle East.
This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published by The Associated Press amid the violence in Israel and retaliatory strikes in Gaza.
Israelis woke up on a religious holiday weekend to the news of multiple and gruesome attacks inside their southern border. Hamas militants broke out of Gaza to launch attacks against civilians and soldiers, leaving the dead in their homes or by the roadside as they tried to flee. Others were dragged off by the dozen and taken as hostages.
Astonished by their own success, Palestinian fighters and onlookers celebrated around the gaps smashed in the border fence and army vehicles seized in the raids and paraded on the streets of Gaza.
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men inspect a damaged road after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Beitar Illit, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Within hours, those same streets were being hammered by airstrikes, while power and water was cut off to homes as Israel promised punishment with unprecedented intensity in the territory often likened to an open-air prison.
Sometimes only a few miles apart, survivors of the attacks on either side of the breached border revisited their homes pulverised by bombs and rocket fire. Others crowded outside hospitals to try and find missing family members or were physically held up by mourners to remain standing at funeral services.
Israeli’s sense of security and unassailable military superiority were smashed by the attacks that the country’s famed intelligence services apparently never saw coming, leaving the region more vulnerable and boiling over with anger and fear.
Palestinian civil defense crews try to extinguish fire in a house that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)
People stand outside a mosque destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Oct.8, 2023. (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)
A Hamas police officer carries a wounded girl into a hospital in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, Oct. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Essa)
The mother of Israeli Col. Roi Levy cries during her son’s funeral at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem, Oct. 9, 2023. Col. Levy was killed after Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Palestinians inspect the rubble of the Yassin Mosque destroyed after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike at Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
Palestinians remove a dead body from the rubble of a building after an Israeli airstrike on the Jebaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Ramez Mahmoud)
Relatives mourn people killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
A woman cries during the funeral of Israeli Col. Roi Levy at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem, Oct. 9, 2023. Col. Levy was killed after Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Israeli soldiers carry the flag-covered coffin of Col. Roi Levy during his funeral at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem, Oct. 9, 2023. Col. Levy was killed after Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Destruction made by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip is seen in Ashkelon, Israel, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
An Israeli tank is deployed between houses in the Israeli town of Metula as seen from the Lebanese side of the Lebanese-Israeli border in the southern village of Kfar Kila, Lebanon, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Israelis evacuate a site struck by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli soldiers take position near the Israeli Gaza border, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Oren Ziv)
A relative mourns over a man killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
A man mourns during the funeral of Israeli Col. Roi Levy at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. Col. Levy was killed after Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
