Over 260 bodies recovered from music festival as US positions warships – live updates

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.

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. He also said the US had also taken steps to augment U.S. Air Force F-35, F-15, F-16, and A-10 fighter aircraft squadrons in the region.

He added that the US would be “rapidly providing” Israel with “additional equipment and resources, including munitions” in the coming days.

At least three Americans were among those killed, CNN reported on Sunday, citing a U.S. memo.

Dozens of flights to and from Tel Aviv were cancelled by major airlines citing the security situation in Israel.

American Airlines, Air France, Lufthansa, Emirates, and Ryanair were among the major commercial airlines that cancelled flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.

China’s Hainan Airlines cancelled flights between Shanghai and Tel Aviv on Monday, citing the war in Israel, the Global Times reported.

El Al, the Israeli flag carrier, said on Sunday that it was maintaining its Tel Aviv flights even though some flights operated by foreign partners had been cancelled.

“We might cancel flights to places where we don’t have a lot of Israelis to help other Israelis in other places,” a spokesperson told AFP.

At least three Americans have been killed in the ongoing Hamas war on Israel, according to a US government memo reviewed by CNN.

The reported State Department document also adds that other US citizens remain unaccounted for in the violence.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Sunday that Americans could be among the dead and said the government was making it a major priority to verify that information and rescue any US hostages.

“We are very actively working to verify those reports,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press.

The US Navy is moving warships and an aircraft carrier closer to Israel, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said. He added that the US would be “rapidly providing” Israel with “additional equipment and resources, including munitions” in the coming days.

The strengthening of the US position in the region is part of the larger military support America provides to Israel.

Each year, Israel receives more than $3bn in US military assistance.

Additionally, there are six US stockpiles, containing an estimated $2bn in material, available for Israeli use in case of an emergency, The New York Times reports.

Partygoers at a rave in the desert near the border with Gaza have told how the first hint of the horror raging towards them in the early hours of Saturday was a barrage of rockets roaring through the morning sky, as it emerged more than 260 people had died in the attack.

It was 6am. Most of the attendees, including a British and a German citizen, had not been to bed and were dancing to trance music under multicoloured tents set up for the Nova festival.

The music stopped briefly and they dropped to the floor – a well-rehearsed drill for Israelis in the south of the country used to frequent cross-border exchange of fire with the Hamas militant group.

But this was so much worse than usual.

“For five minutes there wasn’t a second’s break without a rocket,” says bartender Peleg Oren, 26, one of those who escaped safely. The barrage was so relentless that his friend started to have a panic attack, and begged him to help her leave.

In addition to the wider war between Hamas and Israel, there’s also a deeply complicated hostage crisis.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group, are holding an estimated 130 people in captivity.

The hostages reportedly include citizens of Israel, as well as ally nations like the US.

As Joel Braunold of the Abraham Center notes, hostages being held between two groups, in sites across two countries, makes any efforts to rescue the detainees, negotiate for their release, or check on their health and human rights even more difficult.

“There is no one authority that has all the hostages which makes the whole thing even more disastrous and unlike and not same as administrative detention,” he wrote on X. “There is no single station or system or visitation or canteen or any of the other things.”

One of the survivors of a Hamas attack on a music festival in Re’im, Israel, says militants raped attendees in addition to killing and kidnapping civilians.

“Women have been raped at the area of the rave next to their friends bodies, dead bodies,” the survivor told Tablet.

Israeli officials say 260 bodies have been recovered from the site of the attack.

Demonstrations broke out across the US on Sunday as the Hamas attack on Israel entered its second day.

In New York City, opposing demonstrators clashed near the United Nations compound, The Associated Press reports.

New York govenor Kathy Hochul condemned those turning out to support Palestine, calling them “abhorrent and morally repugnant.”

Meanwhile, pro-Palestine demonstrations occured in Chicago and Atlanta.

“We’re out here again to raise our voice, to make a very clear message: We stand with our people back in Palestine, that we’re behind them 100%,” Muhammad Sankari with the United State Palestinian Community Network told ABC7 Chicago, as demonstrators marched past the Israeli Consulate.

“The people of Gaza are facing essentially brutality and ethnic cleansing again by the Israelis,” he added. “We’re here to say we want a stop to it. We don’t want the United States to be supporting Israel anymore, and we want freedom and liberation for the Palestinian people.”

Intense fighting in Israel and Gaza has massively disrupted international air travel.

Airlines including Delta and American have said operations are suspended at least through Sunday, and they’ve joined United in temporarily halting flights in and out of Tel Aviv.

“Due to the ongoing conflict situation in the region, between Israel and Gaza based extremist militants, operators are advised to review current security, threat information and [Notice to Air Missions],” the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority said Saturday, urging operators to “exercise caution” and expect delays.

Over 1,100 people have been killed and numerous others have been wounded in fighting since Hamas attacked Israel on Saturday.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant group claim to have taken more than 130 people captive, The Associated Press reports.