AP PHOTOS: Israel hits Gaza with airstrikes after attacks by militants

A horrific series of attacks that stunned the world and the deadly round-the-clock response that has raised fears of broader violence in the Middle East.

This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published by The Associated Press amid the violence in Israel and retaliatory strikes in Gaza.

Israelis woke up on a religious holiday weekend to the news of multiple and gruesome attacks inside their southern border. Hamas militants broke out of Gaza to launch attacks against civilians and soldiers, leaving the dead in their homes or by the roadside as they tried to flee. Others were dragged off by the dozen and taken as hostages.

Astonished by their own success, Palestinian fighters and onlookers celebrated around the gaps smashed in the border fence and army vehicles seized in the raids and paraded on the streets of Gaza.

Within hours, those same streets were being hammered by airstrikes, while power and water was cut off to homes as Israel promised punishment with unprecedented intensity in the territory often likened to an open-air prison.

Sometimes only a few miles apart, survivors of the attacks on either side of the breached border revisited their homes pulverised by bombs and rocket fire. Others crowded outside hospitals to try and find missing family members or were physically held up by mourners to remain standing at funeral services.

Israeli’s sense of security and unassailable military superiority were smashed by the attacks that the country’s famed intelligence services apparently never saw coming, leaving the region more vulnerable and boiling over with anger and fear.