Hamas launches rocket attack against Israel and sends fighters across border

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Israel declared a “state of alert for battle” on Saturday after Hamas launched its greatest assault on the nation in years, firing a barrage of rockets and sending militants throughout the border from the Gaza Strip.

Mohammed Deif, the chief of Hamas’s navy wing, mentioned the Palestinian militant group had fired greater than 5,000 rockets at Israel and known as on Palestinians and different Arab states to affix the combating.

Richard Hecht, a spokesman for Israel’s navy, mentioned militants had entered Israel by paragliders, from the ocean and by way of land, and that clashes have been going down in a number of places round Gaza, together with a navy base.

“Proper now, we’re combating,” he mentioned. “We’re combating in numerous areas across the Gaza Strip, the Erez crossing, in Nahal Oz . . . additionally within the Re’im camp, which is the [Gaza] division headquarters.”

The escalation is probably the most critical bout of violence since Israel and Hamas fought an 11-day battle in 2021. It follows weeks of tensions on the border of Gaza, which has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since Hamas took management of the territory in 2007.

The assault, which came about on the Jewish vacation of Simchat Torah, additionally poses an unprecedented problem for Israel’s far-right authorities led by Benjamin Netanyahu, which got here to energy final 12 months with hardliners in essential posts pledging to bolster Israeli safety.

Israel’s navy responded to the assault by placing Hamas targets in Gaza, and mentioned that it was calling up hundreds of reservists. Hecht mentioned the navy was additionally watching the scenario on Israel’s northern border, from which militants fired rockets at Israel in one other flare-up this 12 months.

Israeli paramedics mentioned that one lady had been killed by a direct rocket hit and {that a} additional 15 individuals had been injured, together with two severely. There was no rapid details about casualties in Gaza.

Palestinian media mentioned that militants had taken some Israelis hostage. An Israeli police spokesman didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. A military spokesman had no rapid touch upon the studies of hostage taking.

The rocket hearth from Gaza set off warning sirens throughout the south and centre of Israel, with missiles concentrating on cities together with Tel Aviv and Ashkelon, and the thud of interceptions heard as far north as Jerusalem, a metropolis hardly ever focused by missiles from Gaza.

As Israeli jets hit targets in Gaza afterward Saturday morning, Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group, mentioned that it had additionally joined the combating.

The prime minister’s workplace mentioned that Netanyahu was on his solution to the defence ministry to hold out a safety evaluation with the heads of the Israeli safety institution. The navy closed roads round Gaza, ordering individuals close to the coastal enclave to remain inside their shelters.

The burst of combating caps 18 months of simmering Israeli-Palestinian tensions, with outbreaks of violence in each Gaza and the West Financial institution, which Palestinians search as the center of a future state however which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Based on the most recent UN information, which doesn’t embody the most recent violence, Israeli forces have killed 212 Palestinians this 12 months, whereas Palestinians have killed 30 Israelis.