The Israeli army has launched air strikes on the Gaza Strip after the armed wing of Hamas fired hundreds of rockets from the Palestinian territory,
Euronews reports.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country is “at war” with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu's comments in a televised address mark his first since Hamas launched a major, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak on Saturday. He ordered a call-up of reservists and promised that Hamas would “pay a price that it hasn't known until now.”
“We are at war,” Netanyahu said. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.”
The prime minister also ordered the military to clear the infiltrated towns of Hamas militants that remained locked in gunfights with Israeli soldiers.
Israel also struck several Hamas facilities in the Gaza Strip as part of Operation Iron Swords. "Dozens of Israeli fighter jets are currently attacking several targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation in the Gaza Strip," the army said.
On Saturday morning. Palestinian militants carried out an unprecedented infiltration into southern Israel, sending fighters across the border and firing thousands of rockets into the country.
The rocket fire from several locations in the Palestinian territory began before 6:30 am local time and continued into the early morning. The Israeli army sounded sirens in the south and centre of the country, urging the population to stay close to shelters.
The armed wing of Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, announced that it had launched "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood" against Israel and fired more than 5,000 rockets.
Salah Arouri, an exiled Hamas leader, said the operation was a response “to the crimes of the occupation.” He said fighters were defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Following a security cabinet meeting at the Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that Hamas “made a grave mistake” in launching barrages of rockets into southern and central Israel.
“The state of Israel will win this war,” Gallant said.
