A Kiwi living in Israel with his family says the recent fighting there – which he described as "mass murder" – came as a complete shock.
An MFAT spokesperson said this morning there are 105 Kiwis registered on SafeTravel as being in Israel, and one registered in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. They urged anyone in the region to contact their loved ones and register on SafeTravel.
Paul Thomas lives in Tel Aviv, north of Israel's border with Gaza.
"It's been a truly shocking day, yesterday, one of the worst days in Israel's history," he said.
As many as 1000 Hamas fighters were involved in the unprecedented assault, US Secretary of State Andrew Blinken has said.
The group's fighters broke through Israel's security fence surrounding the Gaza Strip. Using motorcycles and pickup trucks, even paragliders and speedboats on the coast, they moved into nearby Israeli communities — as many as 22 locations.
In the attacks - which began on Saturday night NZT – the gunmen rampaged for hours, firing on civilians in towns, along highways and at a techno music festival being held in the desert near Gaza.
The Israeli government formally declared war overnight in response.
"Nobody could have imagined so many civilians dying," Thomas said.
"[And] nobody when they went to bed beforehand could have predicted this.
"It came out of completely nowhere... There's just shock, I think is the best word to say."
At least 600 people have reportedly been killed in Israel and more than 300 have been killed in Gaza as retaliatory Israeli airstrikes pound the territory. Hamas fighters seized a number of civilians and soldiers from Israel and took them back to Gaza.
From videos and witnesses, the captives are known to include women, children, and the elderly.
Thomas said everyone was initially "pretty calm" when the sirens went off and they went to the bomb shelter.
"It's happened before," he said. "But gradually, as the day went on, suddenly we became aware of what was happening."
Thomas said the day in Tel Aviv was "strange" – but further south, he said it was "a day of murder, of mass murder".
"Often when I'm back in New Zealand, people say: 'Why do you live in this warzone?'
"The truth is, it's not a warzone most of the time.
"I often say it's more dangerous in Courtenay Place or Queen Street on a Saturday night than Tel Aviv.
"Nobody predicted it, nobody can quite understand it and nobody quite knows where we're going from here."
Thomas said people were being called up to the army and his daughter had friends who were missing.
"You walk around and Tel Aviv's very quiet... Everybody thinks there's gonna be more violence."
- additional reporting by the Associated Press
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