Hamas carnage at festival, in Israeli communities: What we know

JERUSALEM, unidentified — Israel was taken by surprise when hundreds of Hamas militants stormed across the border from Gaza on Saturday and killed hundreds while abducting around another 150.

Fighting in some communities lasted for several days, with Israeli officials only confirming that they had "more or less" regained control of the area on Tuesday.

Israel said on Wednesday the death toll from the Hamas attacks had reached 1,200 people.

This figure includes civilians and security forces, and a breakdown by place of death was not available.

The toll is likely to rise because bodies were still being retrieved and identified, and many people remain missing, said an army spokesman.

In the Gaza Strip, health officials said 1,055 people had been killed during retaliatory strikes by Israel. 

The Israeli army said the bodies of more than 1,500 Hamas militants had been found in recaptured areas.

In the deadliest single assault on civilians in Israel's history, 270 revellers were gunned down or burnt in their cars by Hamas gunmen at the Supernova music festival in the Negev desert.

Most of the victims were young people, who had dressed to party and danced through the night on what was the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

Some were under the influence of hallucinogenic substances as the festival came under attack from the air and on the ground, survivors told Israeli media.

Spraying gunfire, the militants "butchered people in cold blood", said Moti Bukjin, a volunteer who recovers bodies, adding that many victims had been shot in the head at close range.

Multiple festival-goers remain unaccounted for, while some have been identified in videos of hostages abducted to Gaza.

In Beeri, a kibbutz of about 1,200 residents five kilometres (three miles) from Gaza, Hamas gunmen killed more than 100 people, Bukjin of the charity Zaka told AFP.

Dozens more are missing, with at least some of them believed to have been captured and taken across the border, and much of the community was burnt to the ground.

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari told Israeli media that "about 70 terrorists infiltrated Kibbutz Beeri".

He said "most of them were killed following exchanges of fire" after