Following in the footsteps of big crossover hits from Jelly Roll and HARDY is “Devil You Know” by Tim Montana, which has been climbing up Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. After more than a decade of releasing country music, Montana harnessed a heavier rock sound with “Devil You Know” that’s long been a part of his musical DNA.
“I’ve been scaring country audiences across the country for many years now headbanging and playing with loud amplifiers,” Montana tells ABC Audio.
“I grew up in a single white trailer house in rural Montana without electricity, so acoustic instruments remind me of being very poor as a child,” he laughs. “The minute I had electricity and an amplifier, I’m plugging it in, and I’m playing loud.”
Montana grew up a state over from Seattle during the ’90s grunge explosion, which he counts as a driving influence for the sound and vibe of “Devil You Know” and future music to come.
“I wanted to capture those sounds that are just ingrained in me from my youth, from Seattle,” he says. “I feel like I really found a lane for myself that is so much more creatively comfortable for me to play in that space.”
Fitting for a song inspired by the sound of a city famous for its rain, “Devil You Know” was recorded amid some extreme weather.
“As we were recording it, a giant storm started coming in,” Montana recalls. “It was very weird, ’cause it was a beautiful day in Nashville, and we just see the sky turning black. The birds were still chirping, so I said, ‘Let’s mic the storm!'”
Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett is set to reissue two of his solo albums on vinyl for the first time.
Newly remastered versions of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s 2003 album To Watch The Storms and 2006’s Wild Orchids will be released December 8 on 180-gram two-LP black and colored vinyl. Signed copies will be available as well.
“I’m delighted to announce the release of both To Watch The Storms and Wild Orchids on vinyl for the first time,” Hackett shares. “I’ve always been proud of these albums and it feels great to give them another lease of life.”
Meanwhile, Hackett is busy on the road on his Foxtrot At Fifty & Hackett Highlights tour. He plays Albany, New York, on October 10. A complete list of dates can be found at hackettsongs.com.
Cher‘s first holiday album, Christmas, is her first new album since 2018’s Dancing Queen. But fans aren’t going to have to wait that long to get another project from the legendary diva.
Speaking to Billboard about Christmas, which is coming out October 20, Cher says, “I have another album to do right after this.” That project is presumably in addition to the November 3 release of the Believe box set, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of that 1998 album and its hit title track.
Meanwhile, Cher says she’s been thinking about resuming live performances. Her last tour was in 2014, but she cut it short due to health problems. She tells Billboard she recently told her producer she’d like to do a show featuring her own personal favorite songs. He suggested she do a show focused on the Christmas album, but she wasn’t into it.
Cher also confirms she won’t do a concert to promote the Believe reissue because she wouldn’t be ready to perform and also, that other album is taking up her time. So what are her live plans, then?
“Well, I don’t know. Look, if I do a concert, there’s gonna be a tour behind it,” she tells Billboard. “I’m working really hard right now. I’m training, like, unbelievably.”
“So I’m training and singing at the same time, which is always fun,” she says with sarcasm. “So I’m working on it.”
Meanwhile, you can listen to “DJ Play a Christmas Song,” the first release from Christmas, now: It’s available via digital outlets and YouTube. Cher’s Christmas is available for preorder now.
West Maui began reopening Sunday to visitors just two months after a wildfire devastated the town of Lahaina.
The reopening did not come without outrage from some residents, many of whom signed a petition to delay the reopening as families continue to struggle to “find shelter, provide for their children’s education, and cope with emotional trauma,” according to the petition.
Homes have been flattened and are completely inhabitable. Businesses have been decimated. Some loved ones remain unaccounted for and residents have been grieving the loss of 97 people who died in the tragedy.
The petition has received more than 10,000 signatures.
The fact that tourism is resuming so soon around the outskirts of a town made unrecognizable by the wildfires has reignited an ongoing debate about Hawaii’s reliance on tourism.
“There is just not a lot of activities like there usually is for these people to do, so a lot of people are wondering, why do they want to come here?” said Jordan Ruidas, a community organizer and resident.
Tourism is the No. 1 driver of that state’s economy, according to Hawaii Tourism Authority, and businesses across the island have been impacted by the lack of visitors since the Aug. 8 wildfires.
But some residents link tourism and its historical links to colonialism with many of the issues plaguing the Islands, including lack of access to clean water, the housing crisis, and pollution and destruction of Hawaiian lands.
“It’s a great business for Hawaii, but the difficult thing for us here is that there is not a street, a community, a county. There’s nowhere that you can hide from tourism in Hawaii,” said Susie Pu, a hotel manager on Maui.
She continued, “The most important thing is that we find a balance between the Hawaiian culture and tourism. Hawaiian people need to be benefiting from tourism equally. And I do not see that.”
Hawaii before tourism
Hawaii didn’t always rely on tourism as its main source of income.
According to research from the University of Hawaii, Hawaiian society was self-sustaining and run in cooperative, extended ohana — or family — that each manned subdivisions of land.
Native Hawaiians were recorded to have been living “well above subsistence levels, with extensive time available for cultural activities, sports, and games” before their long period of isolation from outsiders came to an end, the University of Hawaii found.
Contact with the outside world in the 1770s changed Hawaii drastically. Deaths caused a massive wave of fatalities, leading to a 90% decline in the Native Hawaiian population, according to research from the National Academy of Medicine.
The Hawaiian Kingdom and monarchy were formed during this period of change, adopting Western political strategies to settle disputes between competing Hawaiian states. The Islands also became integrated into the global market, losing its past self-sustaining system.
This drastic social, economic, and political change was marked by a shift to sugar production when a treaty with the U.S. exempted sugar firms on the island from high tariffs.
“The story of sugar is really, really important because in a lot of ways it was the wealthy and powerful corporations that promoted sugar to the kingdom that really were responsible for seeking markets in the United States,” Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwoʻole Osorio, the dean of the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, said.
“That’s all a part of the story of not just the rise, but the fall of the [Hawaiian] kingdom,” said Osorio.
As production expanded, American corporations producing sugar on the Islands sought to keep prices high and labor costs lower, hiring cheaper immigrant labor and lobbying for an immigration policy that would allow them to do so, historians say.
“While sugar did actually generate a great deal of income, most of that income really acted to sort of replace Native Hawaiians in the country,” said Osorio.
Efforts to expand sugar production and house waves of imported labor pushed Native Hawaiians from their land, home, and island.
Throughout this time, laborers were organizing against low wages and poor benefits, and “the sugar companies began to lose a little bit of control. Everybody can sort of see that in the future, sugar is not going to be as profitable as it once was,” according to Osorio.
However, World War II and the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 put labor rights efforts to a halt.
It wasn’t until the late 1940s that workers began to make real concessions — getting better benefits and salaries.
“Sugar companies really basically are looking at an industry that’s not nearly as conducive to profits as it once was. Plus, in the post-war world, there’s also new competition from places like the Philippines,” Osorio added.
By the 1970s, more and more plantations were shutting down and they were moving toward using their lands for a tourist economy.
“Tourism would not exist at the scale that it exists today if it weren’t for the takeover,” Osorio said.
Vulnerability in tourism reliance
Following the wildfires on the West side, occupancy at the oceanfront condo resort Hana Kai Maui on the other side of the island was impacted almost immediately.
“We have always operated at a really high occupancy, almost like 95% year round. The day of the fires or the day after the fires, it was just such a downward slide,” Pu said.
“We lost hundreds of 1000s of dollars in reservations over about a one-week period. And we’re only a 17-unit business so it was a lot. We’re recovering,” she added.
Noah Drazkowski, who was born and raised in West Maui and owns a local business, told ABC News in a previous interview that he’s been grieving alongside his community while looking for ways to keep his local business afloat.
“The majority of our income is from tourists, tourism, and I wish that we could say that we can survive on only the local community support,” said Drazkowski.
Some business owners are torn about the future of tourism in Maui.
In 2022 alone, Hawaii saw nearly 10 million visitors, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Islands saw roughly 2.7 million.
Now, approximately 70% of every dollar is generated directly or indirectly by the visitor industry, according to the Maui Economic Development Board.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how life in Hawaii could be without “overtourism,” Osorio said.
“We started really seeing what happens to beaches and what happens to the ocean and what happens to mountain trails, hiking trails when they are free of so many people,” said Osorio. “The quality of life in so many ways improves not [just for the people] but for other species that have depended on this environment for a long time.”
Pu added: “We want tourists in Hawaii, but we also want to be able to live peacefully here and we want our forests to remain intact.”
The impacts of tourism
Being a popular tourist destination comes with its challenges.
The Aloha State is experiencing one of the worst housing crises in America, with some of the highest housing costs in the nation and the fourth-highest rate of homelessness per capita in the country, according to the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The U.S. has acknowledged its historical responsibility for causing this housing crisis among Native Hawaiians through its 1921 Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, a reparations policy that set aside land for Native communities after the violent displacement and removal of Native Hawaiians.
Parts of Maui have also been under a water conservation notice in recent years, as an intense drought and dry conditions limit the region’s access to water. With hotels and resorts taking up their share of the water, some locals wish that water would be directed toward residents, especially following the deadly wildfire in which firefighters in Lahaina claimed that their hoses ran dry.
Politicians have been under pressure from some residents to look for a way to diversify the economy and for land to be given back to the Native Hawaiian population. As tourism comes back toward the disaster area, the conversation around tourism is unlikely to settle down.
“Our desire is to provide for ourselves so that we can properly feed ourselves, so that we can actually have places to live, so that we can protect the lands from misuse,” said Osorio.
The death toll from strong earthquakes that shook western Afghanistan has risen to over 1,023, with more than 1,600 injured, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the World Health Organization said Sunday.
A powerful magnitude-6.3 earthquake followed by strong aftershocks killed dozens of people in western Afghanistan on Saturday, the country’s national disaster authority said.
About six villages have been destroyed and hundreds of civilians have been buried under the debris, Abdul Wahid Rayan, spokesman at the Ministry of Information and Culture in Afghanistan, said while calling for urgent help.
The initial earthquake struck 40 km west of the city of Herat around 11 a.m. local time, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan. It was felt in neighboring Badghis and Farah provinces.
“Initial assessments indicate that as many as 100 people have been killed across eight villages in Zindajan Province, Herat Province … with a further 500 people injured,” the agency said in an update, noting that “unconfirmed reports suggest this figure may be closer to 320 people.”
Disaster authority spokesperson Mohammad Abdullah Jan said four villages in the Zenda Jan district in Herat province bore the brunt of the quake and aftershocks.
The World Health Organization in Afghanistan said it dispatched 12 ambulance cars to Zenda Jan to evacuate casualties to hospitals.
“As deaths & casualties from the earthquake continue to be reported, teams are in hospitals assisting treatment of wounded & assessing additional needs,” the U.N. agency said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “WHO-supported ambulances are transporting those affected, most of them women and children.”
Telephone connections went down in Herat, making it hard to get details from affected areas but videos on social media showed hundreds of people in the streets outside their homes and offices in Herat city.
The disaster has impacted some 4,200 people — about 600 families — so far, the agency said, with 465 houses reported destroyed and 135 damaged. The worst-affected village is Mahal Wadakha, it said.
“Partners and local authorities anticipate the number of casualties to increase as search and rescue efforts continue amid reports that some people may be trapped under collapsed buildings,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan said.
In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority said at least 15 people were killed and 40 injured.
The U.N. agency shared photos of healthcare workers treating patients outdoors amid the response.
Meanwhile, Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban-appointed deputy prime minister for economic affairs, expressed his condolences to the dead and injured in Herat and Badghis.
The Taliban urged local organizations to reach earthquake-hit areas as soon as possible to help take the injured to hospital, provide shelter for the homeless, and deliver food to survivors. They said security agencies should use all their resources and facilities to rescue people trapped under debris.
“We ask our wealthy compatriots to give any possible cooperation and help to our afflicted brothers,” the Taliban said on X.
UNICEF Afghanistan also said it was on the ground with its U.N. colleagues “to assess the full impact.”
“Once again, children and families in Afghanistan have been affected by a devastating earthquake, this time in western Herat province,” UNICEF Afghanistan said on social media.
In June 2022, a powerful earthquake struck a rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan, flattening stone and mud-brick homes. The quake killed at least 1,000 people and injured about 1,500.
ABC News’ Rashid Haddou contributed to this report.
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said on Sunday that the U.S. should provide Israel with “everything that it needs to be able to take whatever actions it needs to take” in the wake of a large-scale attack by the militant group Hamas that shook the country and the region.
Christie, a former New Jersey governor, told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos that his top priorities if he were president would be engaging allies in the region, such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, to keep the conflict from spreading and to serve as a “sounding board” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help him “think through the ramifications of every step they’re going to take to defend themselves and to try to do the best they can to eliminate the leadership of Hamas.”
Christie, a former ABC News contributor, also called out the dysfunction in the U.S. House of Representatives, where a small group of Republican lawmakers last week voted along with the Democratic minority to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy, leaving it without a way to pass legislation, including foreign aid.
“What I would be doing is making sure, one, that Israel has everything that it needs to be able to take whatever actions it needs to take. And this is the problem with not having a speaker right now,” he said.
“The actions taken by some members of my party were wholly irresponsible without this going on,” Christie said. “They’re now even putting a brighter light on the irresponsibility of not having someone in place.”
Christie also dismissed as “sophistry” some GOP members of Congress floating Trump’s name as the next House speaker — despite Republican conference rules that would prohibit that, given the criminal charges Trump faces. (He denies wrongdoing.)
“This is them doing what they know Donald Trump likes, which is kissing his rear end in public,” Christie said.
He declined to endorse either of the two candidates to succeed McCarthy as speaker — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. But he called Scalise a “responsible, good guy.”
Separately, asked by Stephanopoulos about Trump’s “stranglehold” over the conservative base, Christie — a vocal Trump critic who continues to trail him in the polls — slammed the Republican National Committee, which he accused of “carrying Donald Trump’s water” after stopping a Fox News debate between Christie and fellow candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
The party had said candidates aren’t allowed to participate in non-sanctioned debates.
“More information is better than less, and by trying to restrict how much we can interact with each other, just only on those debate stages, I think it’s a mistake for the party, near-term and long-term, to do that,” Christie said.
But he noted that despite the widespread support from the party Trump has seen, he believes progress is being made against the former president in some early primary states. Trump, for his part, has dismissed Christie as a “failed” candidate and governor.
“This is going to take some time. It’s patience and persistence to put forward the message that he cannot win a general election,” Christie said, echoing what has been his case against Trump. “He doesn’t deserve to be the nominee of this party based upon his conduct in office and his conduct after office.”
“I’m making that argument all over the country, but particularly in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and I’m hearing people respond to it,” Christie added. “But we’re not going to see it show up in polls until much later, I suspect, if not as late as election night.”
Two lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle on Sunday weighed in on the ongoing disarray in the House of Representatives, after a small group of Republicans last week booted Speaker Kevin McCarthy with Democrats’ help, leaving the chamber leader-less and paralyzing one half of Congress.
Washington is staring down a November deadline to fund the federal government or risk a partial shutdown.
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., said on ABC’s “This Week” that his party will have to make electing a new speaker a top priority.
Buck was one of the eight Republicans who ousted McCarthy and told “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos that their next leader should abide by wherever the conference settles on government spending; after that, Buck will back someone.
“How are you going to get agreement on that before you get agreement on a speaker? Isn’t that what brought McCarthy down?” Stephanopoulos pressed. Buck said no — that it was McCarthy’s inability to deliver on his promises.
Buck also said he wanted the party’s deliberations on a successor to unfold out of the public eye, “where the cameras aren’t on and we don’t have people trying to get attention over certain issues.”
Both House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise are in the running.
Buck said he wanted to avoid the extended and very public conflict that played out in January when it took 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to win the speakership amid Republican hard-liners’ resistance. Stephanopoulos followed up to ask if Republicans will push for consensus before a speaker election, “That means this could play out for some time, doesn’t it?”
Buck said that was still better if it was done privately: “For those folks that think we are projecting a chaotic image, it makes a lot more sense to do this behind closed doors and get it finished before we go to the floor [for a vote].”
When pressed by Stephanopoulos on the potential consequences if picking McCarthy’s successor takes longer than a few days, Buck said, “We’ll agree on a candidate by the end of the week, or we’ll agree on a candidate over the weekend. I think we lock the doors, and we have very limited bathroom breaks and food breaks and make sure we get the job done.”
“We’re going to be able to have a family discussion. When we leave that family discussion, I believe we’re going to be united,” Buck also said.
Pete Aguilar of California, the No. 3 House Democrat, meanwhile panned Republicans over the fiasco, noting Democrats’ support earlier this year for a debt ceiling increase that was negotiated to also lay out spending levels ahead of the funding debate.
“Democrats are the ones leading here. This is a Republican House Conference who has an inability to govern and to lead, but that’s why we’re in this moment. Our constituents didn’t send us here to vacate the chair,” Aguilar said in his own “This Week” appearance, referencing the procedural mechanism used to oust McCarthy. “They sent us to Washington, D.C., to work.”
Lawmakers have until Nov. 17 to pass funding legislation to prevent a partial government shutdown, which would have rippling consequences for millions of employees and recipients of social services.
But Republicans and Democrats, which each hold a chamber of Congress, are currently at odds over how much to spend. Democrats insist that the GOP should abide by caps agreed to in the debt ceiling deal with the White House earlier this year, while House Republicans argue those numbers are only ceilings and that the spending levels should be lower.
Stephanopoulos asked Buck if this impasse indicated a shutdown was likely. Buck played that down.
“I think what we need to do is we need to come up with a good, responsible number, be able to make an argument for it and then go into the Senate negotiation conference with a compromise in mind. But we have to start where we believe the lowest possible number for discretionary spending is,” he said.
Aguilar, however, accused some conservatives of pining for a government shutdown.
“I think there’s an element within the House Republican Conference that is dead-set on shutting down our government, to walking up to breaching the debt limit or not funding government. There were many of them in the public domain who were cheering for us to shut down the government. That’s just terrible for the country, it’s terrible for our governance and it just shows an inability to lead,” Aguilar said.
Responding to criticism from McCarthy and others that Democrats should have voted against the motion to vacate and kept McCarthy in his role, Aguilar said his party’s job was to support their leaders — not Republicans.
“This is somebody who has an inability to govern and to lead his conference,” he said of McCarthy. He went on to criticize Jordan as “dangerous for democracy” if he wins the gavel. Both Jordan and Scalise voted against certifying Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat shortly after the Jan. 6 riot.
Buck said he didn’t feel that was “going to be a very big factor at all,” but he argued that certain elements of the party must move past their election denialism.
“That hurts our ability and credibility to move forward with the American people,” he said.
He said he wants the next speaker to unite the party, be elected in one vote and avoid another messy succession. For the moment, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., is serving as interim speaker pro tempore but has said he believes his authority to shepherd legislation is limited.
“We need to unite behind one candidate and stay behind them for the rest of the Congress,” Buck said.
In the wake of brutal and ongoing attacks in Israel by the militant group Hamas — which have already led to the deaths of hundreds — Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said that the U.S. had pledged its “full support” to the Israeli government and engaged allies in the region to ensure they are doing everything possible to repel the attackers and prevent the violence from spilling into other parts of the Middle East.
“This is a massive terrorist attack that is gunning down Israeli civilians in their towns, in their homes, and as we’ve seen, so graphically, literally dragging people across the border with Gaza, including a Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair, women and children,” the secretary told “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.
“The world should be revolted at what it’s seen,” he said.
Early Saturday, fighters from Hamas — a group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Israel and the European Union and which controls Gaza, the Palestinian territory adjacent to Israel — launched a surprise large-scale assault in southern Israel, indiscriminately attacking soldiers and civilians, according to officials.
On Sunday, fighting continued at multiple flashpoints as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sought to regain control of several sites. Israel had launched numerous retaliatory strikes as well.
Blinken said on “This Week” that of the approximately 1,000 Hamas militants that infiltrated Israel, most had since been killed or retreated into Gaza but that “intense fighting remains.”
So far, Israeli health officials say more than 600 people have been killed in Israel and more than 2,100 have been injured. The Israeli government said Sunday that at least one hundred individuals were also still being held hostage by militants.
More than 370 people in Gaza have been killed and at least 1,700 have been wounded in the strikes carried out by Israel, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Blinken said in other Sunday show appearances that the State Department was “working overtime” to verify reports of Americans killed or held hostage in the Hamas onslaught.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been heightened for months, but Hamas’ attack — unprecedented in both its scale and sophistication — appears to have blindsided Israel, suggesting a massive intelligence failure.
“There’ll be time to look at that and to make determinations about what may have been missed,” Blinken said when pressed on the matter by Stephanopoulos. “Right now, the focus has to be on the effort to repel the aggression by the Hamas terrorists, to push them back and to put Israel in a position where this doesn’t happen again.”
Israel’s security cabinet voted to officially declare war over the weekend for the first time since 1973, nearly 50 years to the day since the start of the Yom Kippur War — a weekslong conflict against a coalition of Arab states where U.S. support for Israel was a decisive factor in the country’s victory.
In response to this weekend’s expansive attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “destroy Hamas” and signaled that the country’s forces will soon go on the offensive as the IDF evacuates civilians living near the border with Gaza.
Blinken said Sunday that the U.S. would stand behind Israel as it did whatever necessary to ensure “this doesn’t repeat itself.”
“I don’t want to get ahead of what Israel may or may not do when it comes to Gaza,” he said when asked whether Israel could control the situation if it invaded. “No country should be expected to live with the fear, the possibility and now the actuality of terrorists crossing a border, coming into people’s homes, gunning them down in the street, dragging them across the border and making hostages of them. That is intolerable for any democracy. It’s intolerable for Israel.”
Republicans have criticized the Biden administration approach toward Iran, Hamas’ largest sponsor, contending that the White House in effect enabled the attack and emboldened the extremists by facilitating Iran’s access to sanctioned finances for humanitarian expenditures as part of a separate deal to free American detainees.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a statement that the money transfer was a sign of “appeasement.” Other critics said it would free up Iran to better financially support Hamas.
Blinken, on “This Week,” pushed back.
“There’s a long relationship between Iran and Hamas. In fact, 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,” he said.
“It’s unfortunate that some are, in effect, saying things that may be motivated by politics at a time when so many lives have been lost and Israel remains under attack,” he continued, noting the funds are held in a restricted account monitored by the U.S. Treasury Department.
“By the way, not a single dollar from that account has actually been spent to date,” Blinken asserted, adding, “So, some who are advancing this false narrative — they’re either misinformed or they’re misinforming. And either way, it’s wrong.”
As Israelis were wrapping up the seven-day-long Jewish festival of Sukkot on Saturday, the horrifying sounds of sirens echoed across Israel when thousands of missiles launched into the country by the Hamas militant group from Gaza streaked through the sky and began raining down on indiscriminate targets, sparking terror and leaving hundreds of bodies in the streets of cities and buildings decimated.
The surprise attack came just after sunrise on what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would describe as a “dark day” for his country and an Israeli military official deemed “our 9/11.”
“We have begun the process of naming and counting the dead, both soldiers and civilians. We are talking about unprecedented numbers, numbers that up until two days ago seemed totally fictional and unimaginable,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, told ABC News on Sunday.
As of Sunday afternoon, the death toll in Israel had climbed to more than 700 people, with another 2,100 injured. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that American citizens are believed to be among the dead.
The attack was launched on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kipper War that pitted Israel against Egypt and Syria.
Here is a timeline of events in the rapidly changing conflict enveloping Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip territory:
A barrage of rockets
Oct. 7, 6:30 a.m. in Israel
Air raid sirens began sounding in Jerusalem around 6:30 a.m. local time, warning citizens of the attack in progress and to immediately take cover. An estimated 2,200 rockets were fired toward southern and central Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, by the Hamas militants, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Meanwhile, Hamas claimed at least 5,000 rockets were fired, all landing in southern and central Israel.
One missile slammed into a hospital in the Israeli coastal town of Ashkelon, Israeli officials said.
Armed Hamas militants, many on motorcycles, storm blockaded areas of the Gaza Strip, shooting at Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip, officials said. Video footage surfaces of Hamas militants taking Israeli citizens hostage near the Gaza border.
In one of its first public messages, the IDF said Saturday morning, “Over the past hour, the Hamas terrorist organization launched massive barrages of rockets from Gaza into Israel, and its terrorist operatives have infiltrated into Israel in a number of different locations in the south.”
Oct. 7, shortly after the attack begins
Mohammed Deif, commander in chief of the Hamas’ military arm Al Qassam Brigades, releases a video statement claiming responsibility for the attack.
“The Zionist colonial occupation occupied our Palestinian homeland and displaced our people, destroyed our towns and villages, committed hundreds of massacres against our people, killing children, women and elderly people and demolishing homes with their inhabitants inside in violation of all international norms, laws and human rights conventions,” Mohammed Deif said in his statement.
‘Israel is at war’
Oct. 7, about 10:30 a.m. local time
Israeli jet fighters launched retaliatory strikes in Gaza. Video surfaces of a high-rise residential building in central Gaza City being bombed and flattened by Israeli fighters.
Oct. 7, around 11:30 a.m. in Israel
Netanyahu makes his first public statement, telling his country, “Israel is at war.”
“This is not a so-called military operation, not another round of fighting, but war,” Netanyahu says.
Oct. 7, around 8:30 p.m. ET
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin releases a statement saying he is “closely monitoring” the situation in Israel and extends his condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives in Israel.
“Over the coming days, the Department of Defense will work to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from indiscriminate violence and terrorism,” Austin said.
Separately, a U.S. defense official said that Austin had a call with his team Saturday morning, including U.S. Centcom Commander Gen. Eric Kurilla. Israel falls under CENTCOM’s area of responsibility.
Oct. 7, around 9:30 a.m. ET
The White House announces that President Joe Biden has been briefed by senior national security officials “on the appalling Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel.”
Oct. 7, just after 10 a.m. ET
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issues a statement condemning Hamas’ attack on Israel, saying the U.S. will “remain in close contact with our Israel partners.”
“The United States unequivocally condemns the appalling attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israel, including civilians and civilian communities. There is never any justification for terrorism. We stand in solidarity with the government and people of Israel, and extend our condolences for the Israeli lives lost in these attacks,” Blinken said in a statement.
Oct. 7, around 11 a.m. ET
The White House announces that Biden had spoken with Netanyahu, telling the prime minister the U.S. “condemns” Hamas’ assault on Israel.
“I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the Government and people of Israel. Terrorism is never justified. Israel has a right to defend itself and its people. The United States warns against any other party hostile to Israel seeking advantage in this situation. My Administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering,” Biden said in a televised statement.
‘We will win’
Oct. 7, around 5 p.m. ET
Netanyahu makes a televised address in Israel, repeating his earlier statement that Israel is at war and adding, “We will win.”
“This morning, Hamas launched a murderous surprise attack against the State of Israel and its citizens,” Netanyahu said. “We have been in this since the early morning hours. I convened the heads of the security establishment and ordered — first of all — to clear out the communities that have been infiltrated by terrorists. This currently is being carried out. At the same time, I have ordered an extensive mobilization of reserves and that we return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known. The enemy will pay an unprecedented price. In the meantime, I call on the citizens of Israel to strictly adhere to the directives of the IDF and Home Front Command. We are at war and we will win it.”
30 Israeli police killed in fighting
Oct. 8, around 5 a.m. ET
At least 30 Israeli police officers were killed in the fighting, mainly in Sderot, Israel, where Hamas gunmen took control of the police station.
Israeli officials announce that fighting is ongoing Sunday morning in six places, including Sderot — which sits just two miles from the border with Gaza — and that a rocket injured four people on Sunday morning.
Oct. 8, around 9 a.m. ET
The Israeli government confirmed that a number of civilians and soldiers have been taken hostage. At least 100 Israeli citizens and soldiers are being held hostage by Hamas fighters, Israel’s Government Press Office said Sunday.
Blinken says on CNN’s “State of the Union” and NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the State Department is trying to confirm reports that Americans are among those killed or taken hostage.
Blenkin tells ABC’s “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos that the U.S. has pledged its full support to Israel.
“This is a massive terrorist attack that is gunning down Israeli civilians in their towns, in their homes, and as we’ve seen, so graphically, literally dragging people across the border with Gaza, including a Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair, women and children,” Blinken said on “This Week.”
He adds, “The world should be revolted at what it’s seen.”
Oct. 8, around 1 p.m. ET
Israeli health officials announce that more than 700 people are dead in Israel and over 2,100 others injured. The Palestinian Health Authority said there are 370 people dead in Gaza and 2,200 others injured.
Hundreds of people have died and thousands more are injured in Israel and Gaza after Hamas militants fired rockets from Gaza into Israel Saturday, Israeli authorities said.
The Israeli Defense Forces have declared “a state of alert for war,” according to a statement issued by the IDF early Saturday morning.
Is there a travel advisory to Israel?
The U.S. State Department is advising citizens to exercise increased caution if traveling to Israel or West Bank due to “terrorism and civil unrest,” and it currently has a “do not travel” advisory for Gaza.
The department said in an update Sunday that the situation “remains dynamic; mortar and rocket fire may take place without warning.”
Is travel to Israel suspended?
The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday urged U.S. airlines and pilots to “use caution” when flying in Israeli airspace.
The agency issued a NOTAM, or Notice to Air Missions, to pilots following the unrest that reads, in part, “potentially hazardous situation” and “operators are advised to exercise extreme caution.”
Which airlines have canceled flights?
Several airlines on Saturday temporarily suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv.
United Airlines said it will suspend operations to Israel, telling ABC News: “The safety of our customers and crew is our top priority. We are closely monitoring the situation and we are adjusting flight schedules as required.”
United said Sunday its Tel Aviv flights will remain suspended until conditions allow for them to resume. The airline operated two scheduled flights out of TLV late Saturday and early Sunday.
American Airlines also temporarily suspended operations, saying in a statement: “We will continue to monitor the situation with safety and security top of mind and will adjust our operation as needed.”
On Sunday, the union representing American Airlines pilots told its members to “cease flight operations to Israel” amid conflict in the region. The Allied Pilots Association (APA) president, Ed Sicher, told members to refuse assignments into Israel “until we can be reasonably assured of the region’s safety and security.”
Delta Air Lines also canceled scheduled flights into and out of Tel Aviv this weekend.
The airline said it’s working to “safely transport Delta people back to the U.S. and will work with the U.S. government as needed to assist with the repatriation of U.S. citizens who want to return home.”
Both United and Delta announced travel waivers following the attacks.
Flights out of Tel Aviv
On Sunday, flights were still arriving and departing from Tel Aviv on Sunday, according to flight tracker FlightAware.
How to get out of Israel
U.S. citizens in Israel “should follow local government advice to increase their security awareness and remain safe,” the State Department said. Citizens who need assistance should fill out the crisis intake form to contact their nearest U.S. embassy or consulate
“U.S. citizens who wish to leave and can do so safely are advised to check the status of the border crossings or verify flights have not been canceled before heading to the Ben Gurion Airport,” the department said.
ABC News’ Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
