Israel-Palestine War: In timeline of attacks in Israel, wait for help seemed to be endless
Hamas attackers for five hours, before she was shot and killed. Others hid in the woods, barricaded themselves in safe rooms and waited for up to 26 hours for help to arrive.
The slow response of Israeli forces on Saturday, a national holiday, gave Hamas terrorists many hours to infiltrate more than 20 towns outside Gaza, where they killed at least 1,200 people and took an estimated 150 hostages.
Israeli officials declined to answer questions about the timing of their response to the attacks. Here's what we know about the timeline of some of the deadliest events and the official response, based on interviews with survivors and their family members, and an analysis of photos and video.
Before the attacks
Before 6:30 a.m. Israeli intelligence detected an unusual surge in activity on the Gazan militant networks it monitors and alerted the Israeli soldiers guarding the Gazan border.
But the warning wasn't acted upon, either because the soldiers didn't receive the alert or the soldiers didn't read it.
Start of attacks
Around 6:30 a.m. The deadliest attacks in Israel's history started in many places at the same time.
Armed paragliders took off from Gaza. Militants used drones to destroy Israeli surveillance stations and began to fire thousands of rockets. Commandos in trucks and on motorbikes sped into southern Israel.
The rockets lit up the dawn sky at an all-night festival, and concertgoers began to evacuate.
A group of students in Nir Oz went into shelters.
They would not be rescued for nearly 12 hours.
Shirley Okev went to a safe room in Kfar Aza, a nearby village. She would not leave for more than 20 hours. She contacted her son to alert the army.
