“We are at war,” said the prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu in a video statement in front of Israel’s military headquarters.
The prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu as decaled the country at the ‘state of war’ as early in the morning around 2000 rockets has been fired from Gaza into the Israeli territory. The attacks have resulted in destructing of properties and according to sources at least 22 Israelis were killed, an Israeli emergency services official told NPR.
Hamas, the Palestinian militant movement that runs Gaza, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack. The country was already not in very good conditions with Palestine and after this actions taken by them the Israeli military will not remain quit as the have declared at ‘ state of war alert ‘ amongst the citizens and they are also planning on strikes on neighboring Gaza.
Richard Hecht said in a briefing on Saturday, listing at least half a dozen locations where fighting is taking place.
The locations include Erez Crossing, Nahal Oz, Magen, Kibbutz Beeri, Rehim Army Base, Ziikim Army base, Kfar Azza and Kibbutz Beeri.
In a statement, top Hamas militant commander Mohammed Deif called for a regional war. He said the attacks were in response to Israeli “desecration” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, a reference to Jewish religious ultranationalists who visited the holy site, also revered in Judaism as the Temple Mount, this week during a Jewish holiday.
Israeli media reported that gunmen had opened fire on passers-by in Sderot, and footage circulating on social media appeared to show clashes in city streets as well as gunmen in jeeps roaming the countryside. Rocket warning signs have been heard in Jerusalem. Israel’s ambulance service said teams had been dispatched to areas in southern Israel near Gaza and residents were warned to stay inside.
The first round of rockets was fired at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning local time (11:30 p.m. ET), when most Israelis are likely to have been asleep.
It is rare for Palestinian militants to be able to make it into Israel from Gaza which is sealed off and heavily watched by the military.
Gaza is one of the most densely packed places in the world, an isolated coastal enclave of almost 2 million people crammed into 140 square miles.
Governed by Hamas, the territory is largely cut off from the rest of the world by an Israeli blockade of Gaza’s land, air and sea dating back to 2007. Egypt controls Gaza’s southern border crossing, Rafah.
In recent weeks, Egyptian mediators have reportedly sought to broker an agreement that would prevent Gaza-Israel violence, financially stabilize Hamas’ government employees in Gaza and increase the number of Palestinian laborers allowed to work in Israel. The latest violence could threaten efforts to reach a U.S.-brokered diplomatic deal for formal relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Social media footage obtained by CNN showed multiple masked gunmen in a pickup truck driving down a street in the Israeli city of Sderot. Gunfire could also be heard in the video.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating inside Gaza but gave no details.
Israeli media reported that gunmen had opened fire on passers-by in Sderot, and footage circulating on social media appeared to show clashes in city streets as well as gunmen in jeeps roaming the countryside.
“We were told there are terrorists inside the kibbutz, we can hear gunfire,” a young woman named Dvir, from Beeri Kibbutz, told Israeli Army Radio from her bomb shelter.
