A shaken Filipino carer showed a tour of her home that was wrecked during fighting in Israel this week.

Irene Repuela Torres, 25, had been tending to her elderly employers at the house in Kibbutz Kissufim along Israel's border with Gaza when fighters from Hamas converged on them on October 7.

As the armed men invaded the property and fired shots, terrified Irene said she hurriedly carried the pensioner couple she cares for into the house's bomb shelter. She claimed to have stayed in the bunker for 35 hours before finally venturing outside and finding the house in ruins.

Footage shows the front door glass shattered, while the kitchen cupboards and refrigerator appeared to have been ransacked. Sprays of bullet holes had also marred the ceiling.

Speaking through tears, Irene said: 'We were lucky the shelter door could not be opened because I made sure to lock it well. I had already message my family and my husband that the attackers had entered the house. It crossed my mind that I could be taken hostage.'

Irene said she was able to contact the Philippine Embassy, which then arranged for her and her employers to be rescued. They were transported to a hotel in northern Israel and are safe.

Overseas employees from Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines, have been caught in the crossfire of the long-running territorial and religious war, that exploded on Saturday when rockets were launched by Hamas from Gaza into the Jewish state of Israel.

Officials said at least 18 Thai nationals and two Philippines nationals have been killed. Thousands have pleaded to return home but military aircraft are currently not allowed to land in the war zone. Some have booked commercial flights from the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, with planes continuing to arrive and depart despite Palestinian threats to target the airport.

The Israeli government has formally declared war on Hamas and vowed 'significant military steps' to retaliate against the organisation over the surprise attack that saw hundreds of civilians killed at a music festival and in their homes in a number of villages.

Israel has also called up 300,000 reservists even as its military has said that it has regained large swathes of territory in the south of the country.

Hamas has pledged to kill its Israeli hostages if the military targets civilians. Hamas has said they have 130 hostages, including both soldiers and civilians.

The long-running conflict is based on Palestinian opposition to the existence of a Jewish state in what Palestinians believe is their homeland.