Dozens killed as Hamas surprise attack stuns Israel

AP) — Hamas militants fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of fighters into Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday, killing dozens and stunning the country.

Israel said it was now at war with Hamas and launched airstrikes in Gaza, vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price.”

Several hours after the incursion began, Hamas militants were still fighting gunbattles inside several Israeli communities near Gaza.

Israel's national rescue service said at least 40 people have been killed and hundreds wounded, making it the deadliest attack in Israel in years. Also, an unknown number of Israeli soldiers and civilians had been seized and taken into Gaza.

At least 198 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed in Israel's retaliation and at least 1,610 wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said.

The strength, sophistication and timing of the attack shocked Israelis, with images of Hamas gunmen bringing seized soldiers and civilians into Gaza on motorbikes and parading what appeared to be captured Israeli military vehicles through the streets.

Videos on social media showed what appeared to be at least one dead Israeli soldier within Gaza being dragged and trampled by an angry crowd of Palestinians shouting “God is Greatest.”

The assault threatened to spiral into a greater conflict, mirroring previous Hamas-Israel conflicts that brought widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli communities.

“We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass army mobilisation. “Not an 'operation,' not a 'round,' but at war.”

“The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” he added, promising that Israel would “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.”

The shadowy leader of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, in turn, said the assault was in response to the continued blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, violence at Al Aqsa — the disputed Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount — increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians and continued growth of settlements. He said the morning attack was only the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.”

“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message, as he called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight. “Today the people are regaining their revolution.”

At a meeting of top security officials later on Saturday, Netanyahu said the first priority was to “cleanse the area” of enemy infiltrators, then to “exact a huge price from the enemy,” and to fortify other areas so that no other militant groups join the war.

The serious incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Israel's enemies launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

The Hamas assault would have likely required months of planning. It comes at a time of mounting tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.

Over the past year Israel's far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.

In a televised address, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that Hamas had made “a grave mistake” and promised that “the state of Israel will win this war.”

Western nations condemned the incursion and reiterated their support for Israel, while others called for restraint on both sides.

“The US unequivocally condemns the unprovoked attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians,” said Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the US National Security Council. “We stand firmly with the government and people of Israel and extend our condolences for the Israeli lives lost in these attacks.”

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