The militants also targeted an all-night dance festival in the desert, prompting hundreds of young Israelis to sprint for safety.
In Sderot, a southern city, photographs showed dead bodies strewn on the streets. Unverified footage appeared to show Palestinian fighters transporting captured Israeli civilians and bodies through the strip - to be bargained, analysts said, for Palestinian prisoners. Residents of Israeli border towns told broadcasters that gunmen were moving door to door, looking for civilians. Unverified video footage, circulated by Hamas, the Iran-backed militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, appeared to show some Palestinian gunmen arriving in Israel in a sort of makeshift hang glider. Rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel on Saturday morning.