Israel’s military has declared a ‘state of war’ after Islamic militant group Hamas fired a claimed 5,000 rockets into the country early on Saturday.
Forces in the country have ordered residents to remain indoors after confirming Hamas militants had ‘infiltrated’ the country in several locations near the Gaza border in southern Israel.
Hamas supreme military commander Mohammed Deif said the operation, Al-Aqsa Storm, was a declaration that ‘enough is enough’ as he urged Palestinians to confront Israel.
Videos on social media appeared to show armed troops from the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ militant arm, moving through built-up areas firing weapons.
Israeli media reports suggested an Israeli soldier had been kidnapped by Hamas militants as they swept the streets.
A man runs in the road as fires burn in Ashkelon, Israel, following rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip initiated by Islamic militant group Hamas
Rockets have struck buildings across southern Israel – and militants are reported to have taken to the streets after ‘infiltrating’ the country
A Palestinian man takes a selfie and flashes a peace sign as an Israeli tank, hit by Palestinian militants, burns in the background at the border with the Gaza strip
A woman stands in a damaged room in Ashkelon, Israel after rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip by Hamas militants
Israeli soldiers head south near the city of Ashkelon in southern Israel after Hamas militants successfully infiltrated the country on Saturday
A rocket is launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel by Hamas militants on Saturday – in a surprise attack that is thought to have caught the country off-guard
Palestinians are seen celebrating in the Gaza Strip after Hamas gunmen infiltrated areas of southern Israel and rocket barrages were fired into the country on Saturday
This image, issued by the media office of Hamas’ militant arm, the Al-Qassam Brigades, shows what it claims are Palestinian fighters infiltrating southern Israel
A Palestinian gunman holds his weapon aloft after infiltrating the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border fence, which is heavily fortified
Israeli security forces take cover during a rocket attack siren warning as rockets are fired from the Gaza strip into Ashkelon
A car burns after a rocket attack in southern Israel on Saturday. Hamas claimed to have fired 5,000 rockets into the country
A firefighter inspects a building in Rishon LeZion – a city just a few miles south of Tel Aviv – after a rocket attack by Palestinian militants
In a statement posted on Telegram, Hamas called on ‘the resistance fighters in the West Bank’ as well as ‘our Arab and Islamic nations’ to join the battle.
Following the first attacks, Hamas commander Deif has urged Palestinians to engage in a civil uprising.
In remarks reported by CNN, he said: ‘If you have a gun, get it out. This is the time to use it – get out with trucks, cars, axes. Today the best and most honorable history starts.’
‘Today the people are regaining their revolution,’ he added, in other statements reported by AP, as he called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to ‘expel the occupiers and demolish the walls.’
In response, Israeli forces have vowed that Hamas will ‘face the consequences and responsibility for these events’.
‘The military declares a state of war alert,’ Israel’s army said in a statement.
‘In the last hour, the Hamas terrorist organization had begun a massive shooting of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, and terrorists infiltrated into Israeli territory in a number of different locations.’
Israel defence minister Yoav Gallant said that Hamas had started a ‘war’ against the country.
‘Hamas has made a grave mistake this morning and launched a war against the State of Israel,’ he said, adding that ‘Israel will win’.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would shortly convene security chiefs over the violence.
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) said in a tweet: ‘Israelis across the country—on Shabbat and the holiday of Simchat Torah—woke up to sirens sounding and Hamas firing rockets at them from Gaza this morning. We will defend ourselves.’
Two women – one of whom appears to be carrying an assault rifle – look on after rockets were launched into Ashkelon in Israel
Rockets are fired from Gaza City towards Israel early on Saturday as Hamas declared that it had begun a new offensive against the country
Burnt out vehicles lie wrecked in the streets of Ashkelon, a few miles north of the Gaza Strip
Israeli residents take shelter in the basement of a building after the Palestinian incursion into the country began early on Saturday
A rescue worker from the Magen David Adom disaster relief service looks on as cars burn at the site of a rocket attack in Ashkelon, southern Israel
Israel Defence Force (IDF) soldiers closed roads in the Sderot area, around a mile from the blockaded Gaza territory, following the attacks
Streams of rockets are fired by Palestinians in response to Israeli counter-strikes on Saturday
The Israel-Gaza border is heavily fortified, with cameras and sensors both above and below ground to deter incursions like the one that began on Saturday – marking a significant escalation the Palestinian offensive.
The country has begun began striking targets in Gaza in response, and deployed countermeasures to repel further air attacks – prompting further rocket launches from inside the blockaded territory.
Hundreds of residents in the Gaza Strip fled their homes to move away from the border with Israel after the counter-attacks began, the AFP news agency reported.
Men, women and children were seen carrying blankets and food items as they left their homes, mostly in the northeastern part of the Palestinian territory.
The country’s Magen David Adom rescue agency said a woman in her 60s was killed ‘due to a direct hit’ in Israel, reports AFP.
Elsewhere, a 20-year-old man was moderately injured by rocket shrapnel, it said. Fifteen others were wounded, two of them seriously.
Images from within the blockaded Gaza territory, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, showed Palestinians celebrating in the streets.
Palestinians could also be seen climbing on top of a burning Israeli tank that was hit at the border with the Gaza Strip, and posing for selfies.
Saturday’s incursion sets the stage for what was likely to be a new heavy round of fighting between the bitter enemies.
But locals claimed that they were yet to see a military response as footage showed Hamas militants entering civilian settlements in pickup trucks, bearing assault rifles.
Israeli soldiers and security officials in Tel Aviv, as the office of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was set to convene a meeting with officials
Israeli soldiers on a main road in central Israel after Hamas instigated an incursion into the country
A rocket is fired from within Gaza City after Israeli forces began launching airstrikes in response to the Hamas offensive on Saturday
Palestinians celebrate after an Israeli tank was hit by Hamas gunmen who infiltrated the south of the country, on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border
A plume of smoke rises from a residential apartment building hit by an airstrike in Ashkelon. However, Israel’s Iron Dome defence system is said to have deflected much of the barrage
One local told Israeli news website Ynet: ‘We are under attack, and no one is coming to help us. For more than an hour and a half there has been non-stop shooting. They are slaughtering us here, there is no army.’
Images have circulated on social media showing what appeared to be uniformed Palestinian gunmen inside the Israeli border town of Sderot.
Another video, reported by the AP news agency, appeared to show the lifeless body of an Israel Defence Force (IDF) soldier being trampled in Gaza by an angry crowd shouting ‘God is great’. Multiple versions of the footage, filmed from different angles, have appeared online.
Clips also posted online appeared to show militants dragging away an Israeli soldier on a motorcycle. The agency said it had not been able to verify the authenticity of the footage.
The sound of outgoing rockets whooshing through the air could be heard in Gaza and sirens wailed as far away as Tel Aviv, some 70 kilometres (40 miles) to the north, during the early morning barrage that lasted more than 30 minutes.
Cities and towns in southern Israel emptied as the military closed roads near Gaza and millions of Israelis scrambled to bombs shelters while air raid sirens wailed overhead.
In the community of Nahal Oz, just 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Gaza Strip, terrified residents who were huddled indoors said they could hear constant gunfire echoing off the buildings.
‘With rockets we somehow feel safer, knowing that we have the Iron Dome (missile defense system) and our safe rooms,’ Mirjam Reijnen, a 42-year-old volunteer firefighter in the town told the AP news agency.
‘But knowing that terrorists are walking around communities is a different kind of fear,’ she added, saying that she and her three children have been too scared to leave the shelter even for a moment to use the bathroom.
The surprise Hamas launches came after weeks of heightened tensions along Israel’s volatile border with Gaza, and heavy fighting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated places in the world, with around two million people packed into 140 square miles.
But it depends on Israel for water, electricity, telecommunications, and other utilities, and imports are carefully controlled by the occupying country.
Israel has maintained a blockade over Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.
The bitter enemies have fought four wars since then. There have also been numerous rounds of smaller fighting between Israel and Hamas and other smaller militant groups based in Gaza.
Smoke could be seen rising from multiple places after barrages were fired early on Saturday in the surprise attack
A thick, dark plume of smoke rises from a damaged building in Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv, after it was struck by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip
A building burns in the Israeli city of Gedera after Hamas fired a claimed 5,000 rockets
Rockets landed in suburban areas, striking homes – pictured above: fire at a home in Ashkelon, southern Israel after it was struck by a rocket
Locals in Ashkelon assess the damage after rockets were fired into residential areas across southern Israel by Palestinian militants
An Israeli war jet is seen flying over the country after Hamas began its barrage on Saturday
Firefighters in Ashkelon, Israel tackle blazes started by rockets fired into the country on Saturday morning by the militant group Hamas
Saturday’s incident was the most serious since Israel and Hamas fought a 10-day war in 2021, with Israeli media reporting gun battles between bands of Palestinian fighters and security forces in towns in southern Israel.
The AFP agency reports that at least 247 Palestinians, 32 Israelis and two foreigners have been killed in the conflict this year, including combatants and civilians on both sides, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.
The vast majority of fatalities have occurred in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict.
There has been a rise in army raids, Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis and Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property.
The blockade, which restricts the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, has devastated the territory’s economy.
Israel says the blockade is needed to keep militant groups from building up their arsenals. The Palestinians say the closure amounts to collective punishment.
The rocket fire comes during a period of heavy fighting in the West Bank, where nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military raids this year.
Israel says the raids are aimed at militants, but stone-throwing protesters and people uninvolved in the violence have also been killed.
Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets have killed over 30 people.
The tensions have also spread to Gaza, where Hamas-linked activists held violent demonstrations along the Israeli border in recent weeks.
Those demonstrations were halted in late September after international mediation.
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