Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, as it was called, began at 6:30 a.m., with 5,000 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel, followed by the entry of armed militiamen. “Today is the day of the great revolution,” said the head of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, Mohammad Deif, inviting all Palestinians to join the armed struggle. “If you have a weapon, now is the time to use it,” he added. A call to which the Palestinian Islamic Jihad responded.
Israeli defenses responded immediately and began airstrikes on Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a security cabinet meeting at 1 p.m. (12 p.m. in Italy), while Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has declared a state of emergency within 80 kilometers of the Gaza Strip and called up reservists. “Hamas made a big mistake this morning and started a war against the State of Israel.” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid pledged his party’s support for “any decisive military response.”
Warning sirens are wailing in central and southern Israel as well as in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The police urged citizens to stay at home. Armed Palestinian militiamen from Gaza entered the city of Sderot in Israeli territory and drove off from there in a van that fired shots everywhere. There is talk of several victims, but there is no confirmation. A video circulating on social media shows men dressed in black with white armbands firing long-barreled weapons from a van at an Israeli patrol in the middle of the street.
The Israeli Emergency Medical Service (Magen David Adom) announced that a woman, aged about 60, who was injured by a direct hit by a rocket in the Gederot area, near Ashkelon, has died. According to the same source, there are currently a total of 15 injured (one seriously). In the Negev, the Bedouin village of Kseifeh, where there are no bomb shelters, four people were killed by Palestinian rockets.
Yesterday, tens of thousands of Islamic Jihad supporters gathered in the streets of Gaza to mark the anniversary of the movement’s founding. However, it is still not clear whether there is a connection between this event and today’s launches.
The messages in the mosques
Local sources add that jubilant messages are being heard from loudspeakers in mosques. Below: “We have surprised the enemy.” It is a great victory for the armed resistance.”
Netanyahu will meet military security personnel soon
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will soon meet with security and military officials following the surprise attack from Gaza. Some analysts report that the attack from Gaza came a day after Israel and the Arab world marked the 50th anniversary of the surprise attack by Egypt and Syria that sparked the Yom Kippur War.