The week has brought fear, destruction and uncertainty for millions in the region. Here’s how the events unfolded.

Early Saturday morning, under the cover of thousands of rockets, Hamas militants breached Israel’s high-tech “smart wall” and went on a killing rampage in small towns across southern Israel.

How Hamas breached Israel’s ‘Iron Wall’

The ambush took Israeli forces by surprise. Officials said the attackers overran more than 20 communities. It took the military 10 hours to arrive in some towns. By that point, hundreds of civilians were already dead. Militants are believed to have taken more than 100 hostages into Gaza.

Maps and videos show how the deadly surprise attack on Israel unfolded

Fighting continues, death toll rises

Fighting continued with militant holdouts inside Israel as the country formally declared war on Hamas. Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that is allied with Hamas, fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces launched a punishing campaign of airstrikes on Gaza, displacing thousands of people in the first 24 hours.

In Israel, the death toll continued to rise. More than 250 bodies were recovered at the site of a trance music festival held just three miles away from the Gaza border. Survivors described tired festivalgoers running for their lives in a wide-open field as militants gunned them down.

A ‘complete siege’ of Gaza

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, saying Israel would cut off supplies of power, food and gas.

Gazans have lived for 16 years under an Israeli blockade supported by Egypt and are heavily dependent on Israel for electricity and other basic services. Cutting off gas and power could leave many residents not only without electricity, but also without clean drinking water, proper sanitation and health care.

Israel ordered a ‘complete siege’ of Gaza. Here’s what that looks like.

U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk would a day later condemn the siege, saying that depriving civilians of “goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law.”

As airstrikes on Gaza continued, fleeing Palestinians saw their last hope erased. Strikes near the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the last route out of the territory, closed the checkpoint indefinitely, leaving civilians with nowhere to go.

Scenes of more destruction

Bodies in Israel were still being found. After 2½ days of intense fighting in Kfar Azza — one of the first towns attacked — soldiers escorted journalists through scenes of utter ruin. Homes were burned, cars were smashed, and the air smelled of death.

Israeli commanders said they had gained control of the border around Gaza, but Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel, even as IDF airstrikes targeted militant infrastructure and command posts. The military said it had carried out more than 2,000 strikes across Gaza since Saturday, killing hundreds of Palestinians.

Israel pledged to focus its fire on Hamas fighters and abide by international law. Two members of Hamas’s political office were killed.

But mosques, hospitals, residential buildings and international aid groups were also hit.

Israeli strikes on Gaza intensified, many concentrated in heavily populated areas in the north. The death toll surpassed 1,100 people, and more than 263,000 people were displaced across the strip. The United Nations announced 11 workers were killed.

Some of the most devastating strikes Israel has carried out in Gaza

Palestinian authorities said Gaza’s only power plant had run out of fuel and was no longer operating.

Israel provides Gaza with power in two ways. Gaza’s power plant runs on imported diesel fuel. There are also 10 direct power lines from Israel to Gaza. Now, both sources were cut off.

Preparing for a ground assault

Israeli tanks deployed to the border with Gaza, and reservists arrived for duty at the Julis military base near Ashkelon.

Meanwhile, the Israeli bombardment of Gaza continued.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the IDF, said in a televised briefing that Israel would no longer allow Hamas to exist next door.

“Unlike other operations, we are collapsing the governance and sovereignty of the Hamas organization,” he said.

Deep underground, in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, medics lined up hospital beds and braced for the possibility of a wider regional escalation. After rocket fire from Syria earlier in the week, Israel launched missile strikes on two of the nation’s main airports, authorities in Damascus said.