Israel-Hamas war: Netanyahu orders retaliatory strikes after unprecedented Hamas rocket attack

Editor’s word: This can be a growing story and will likely be up to date.

Hamas on Saturday launched a big, well-coordinated assault on Israel from the territory it controls in Gaza after months of simmering conflict between Israel and Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Financial institution, and Gaza.

A bunch of Hamas militants entered Israel Saturday — an unprecedented breach of the safety equipment that controls Palestinian motion out and in of Israel — killing a minimum of 100 Israelis and wounding a minimum of 1,104, in accordance with the New York Instances. At least 198 Palestinians have been killed, the Gazan Well being Ministry reviews, each in retaliatory strikes and in gunfights. There have additionally been reviews of Hamas fighters taking hostages again into Gaza and of gunfights in southern Israeli cities. Hamas army chief Mohammad Deif additionally claimed that the group had launched 5,000 rockets into Israel; the Israeli military put that number at 2,200 by late morning Saturday. Nonetheless, that quantity signifies the huge scale of this operation; in the entire of a 50-day conflict between Hamas and Israel in 2014, the group launched a complete of 4,564 rockets and mortars into Israel.

“Our enemy pays a value the kind of which it has by no means identified,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said about the attacks. “We’re in a conflict and we’ll win it.” Underneath Netanyahu’s management, Israel has grow to be more and more hostile to Palestinians and inspired Israeli settlements in elements of the West Financial institution, one other Palestinian enclave.

In the meantime, Israel’s opposition chief, Yair Lapid stated that he was keen to put aside disagreements with Netanyahu to “set up, along with him, a small, skilled emergency authorities,” in accordance with the New York Times.

The Israeli Protection Forces have already retaliated with airstrikes in opposition to Gaza, which has suffered from blockades by Israel and Egypt for years and has been described as an “open-air prison.” In the meantime, Iran and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia militant group based mostly in southern Lebanon, have praised the attacks. Saudi Arabia, which is in negotiations to normalize relations with Israel, issued a statement calling for deescalation, particularly calling out Israel for its “continued occupation, the deprivation of the Palestinian folks of their reliable rights, and the repetition of systematic provocations in opposition to its sanctities.”

Hamas management is asking the operation “Al-Aqsa Storm” after the mosque in Jerusalem, which is Islam’s third-holiest web site. Palestinian worshippers have been repeatedly harassed and attacked by Israeli police and settlers on the web site.

The assaults got here on the ultimate day of Sukkot, a Jewish celebration of the harvest, in addition to on the 50th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur war, through which Egypt and Syria attacked Israel, threatening the existence of the younger nation.

Correction, 3:15 pm ET: A earlier model of this story misstated that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the second-holiest web site in Islam. It’s the third.