Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at Israel just as the clock struck midnight to welcome the new year.
Palestinians were killed overnight in Israeli strikes on Palestinian territory.
Air raid sirens sounded in Israel in early 2024, and journalists in Tel Aviv witnessed missile defense systems at work intercepting rockets overhead, as some revelers in the streets below rushed for cover while others maintained the party with a shrug, AFP reported.
"We all hid in the corners ... my heart was beating like crazy," Gabriel Zemelman, 26, said after the rocket fire.
"It's terrifying. You've just seen the life we live, it's crazy," he added.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video posted on social media, saying they had fired M90 rockets in "response to the massacres of civilians" carried out by Israel.
The Israeli military confirmed the attack without initially reporting casualties or damage.
Surrounded by friends, 24-year-old employee Ran Stahl said he didn't have the heart to celebrate, not after one of his friends was killed in the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival.
"The moment I start dancing, I feel guilty - the sadness and mourning come back," he said.
In Gaza overnight, Israeli strikes killed at least 24 people. According to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, the total death toll now exceeds 21,000.
The nearly three-month war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas's bloody attacks on Israel on October 7, which killed around 1,140 people, most of them civilians.
The terrorists also took about 250 people hostage that day, most of whom remain in Gaza to this day. /BGNES
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