Israel and the Gaza Strip are at war again this Saturday, October 7 after the launch of a surprise military offensive by Hamas, which fired thousands of rockets and infiltrated fighters into Israeli territory. “We are at war, it is not a simple operation or a cycle of violence, but a war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message. Referring to “a surprise attack” by Hamas, he concluded his speech by asserting: “We are at war and we will win it.” According to a new count from Israeli emergency services, the ongoing attack has left at least 40 Israelis dead.
Residents of Israeli towns and cities around the Gaza Strip spent the morning to the rhythm of anti-aircraft warning sirens which also rang out as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, or numerous explosions of rocket interceptions by the anti-aircraft defense were heard. This war breaks out as this Saturday marks the last day of the Jewish holidays of Sukkot in Israel, the country being in slow motion, many pilgrims and tourists having flocked to the country during school holidays. It also comes fifty years and one day after the start of the Arab-Israeli war of 1973 which resulted in the death of 2,600 Israelis and at least 9,500 dead and missing on the Arab side in three weeks of combat.
In an audio message broadcast by Hamas television, the commander of the armed wing of this movement announced that he had launched the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation against Israel and said he had fired more than “5,000 rockets”. “We have decided to put an end to all the crimes of the occupation (Israel),” Mohammad Deif, head of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in the message. The rocket fire began before 6:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. in France).
Furthermore, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, denounced the taking of civilians hostage in violation of international law and called for their release, after the Hamas offensive against Israel. “The news of civilians being held hostage at home or in Gaza is appalling. It goes against international law. The hostages must be released immediately,” he said on X (formerly Twitter). Hamas’ military wing released a video showing at least three men in civilian clothes being detained by gunmen with blurred faces, claiming they were “enemies” captured during its offensive against Israel.
“Send help”
The Israeli military said Hamas was behind a “combined attack, including rocket fire and terrorist infiltration into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip.” “Our forces are now fighting on the ground” and the mobilization of thousands of reservists has been approved, said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, spokesman for the Israeli army. Questioned by Israeli media, residents of areas close to the Gaza Strip demand increased protection from the army. The Israeli newspaper Times of Israel relays the testimony of a pregnant woman, living in Kibbutz Soufa (a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip): “Please send help.” Times of Israel quotes her specifying that she is speaking from a secure shelter where she is with her relatives including a child: “They are shooting at our house, they are trying to break down the door of the secure room.”
The armed wing of Palestinian Hamas fired hundreds of rockets Saturday morning from the Gaza Strip.
© / Anadolu Agency via AFP
An AFP journalist noted that at least two wounded people, including an Israeli soldier, had been evacuated from Sderot, one of the closest Israeli communities to the north of the Gaza Strip, and that special Israeli units were in action. in the zone. Since the morning, hundreds of residents of eastern Gaza have fled their homes to move away from the border with Israel, according to an AFP correspondent. A woman in her sixties was killed as well as a local elected official, on the Israeli side, in the northeast of the Gaza Strip. Fifteen other people were injured in southern Israel, announced Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross. The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has launched “a war against the State of Israel”, declared Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, after announcing the recall of the reservists.
“Serious error”
“Hamas made a serious mistake this morning by launching a war against the State of Israel,” Israeli soldiers “are fighting the enemy in every location,” Yoav Gallant said in a statement. The Israeli operation was named “Steel Sabres”, according to the army. At least nine people were killed in Gaza by these strikes, according to an AFP journalist who saw eight bodies in the morgue of Gaza’s Al-Chifa hospital, and another attended the funeral of a ninth person in Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Around 11 a.m. (9 a.m. in France), the army announced that it would carry out its first air strikes on Gaza in retaliation for the rocket fire. “Dozens of fighter jets are currently striking targets of the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip,” the army said in a statement. AFP journalists in Gaza saw smoke rising from several targeted locations.
In May, Israel launched an offensive against Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, triggering a five-day war between the Israeli army, Islamic Jihad and other armed groups in the territory that cost the lives of 34 Palestinians. and an Israeli. More than a thousand rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, most of them intercepted by the Israeli air defense system. Israel, for its part, had increased airstrikes on the small territory. Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, had stayed away from this conflict. Israel has imposed a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas took control.