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What You Should Know About The War In Israel
On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led Palestinian militant organizations started a massive invasion and offensive against Israel from the Gaza Strip. They managed to breach the Gaza-Israel barrier and gain access to neighboring Israeli settlements and military installations by breaking through the Gaza border crossings.
A day after the Islamist organization launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza, gun clashes broke out between Hamas militants and Israeli forces on Sunday, dramatically escalating the Israeli-Palestinian war.
Since the Iran-backed Hamas’s multi-pronged assault began at dawn on Saturday, hundreds of people have died on both sides. Israeli forces are battling renegade militants and repeatedly bombing the Gaza Strip.
What is now known about the conflict is as follows:
How It Happened
On Saturday, at the Jewish festival of Simchat Torah, the army said that hundreds of Hamas militants attacked Israel beginning about 6:30 am (0330 GMT), 50 years to the day after the start of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
The Islamist organization employed bulldozers and explosives to breach the barrier enclosing the blockaded Palestinian enclave as its members launched thousands of rockets into Israel from Gaza.
The terrorists rushed into Israeli urban centers including Ashkelon, Sderot, and Ofakim, which is roughly 22 kilometers (13 miles) from Gaza, using motorbikes, pickup trucks, motorized gliders, and speed boats.
According to Israeli media, the gunmen ambushed a dance party attended by hundreds of young Israelis on Kibbutz Reim, close to Gaza.
The terrorists took control of several facilities within Israel, including a police station in Sderot where they clashed with Israeli security forces on Sunday.
Hamas strongholds in Gaza, an impoverished region of 2.3 million people encircled by an Israeli siege for more than 15 years, have been promised to be reduced to “rubble” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have been sent out, according to the army, to combat the militants who were still “on the ground” in Israel on Sunday.
In a campaign it has called “Swords of Iron,” Israel has also launched airstrikes against Hamas installations within Gaza.
According to Army spokesman Richard Hecht, 800 targets, including Gaza buildings, tunnels, and other infrastructure, were hit by the airstrikes. The military declared that its goal is to free Israeli hostages within 24 hours, followed by the evacuation of the entire region.
Nearly 1,000 dead
In Israeli cities, villages, and kibbutz communities, Israel claims that Hamas militants have murdered more than 600 people and injured more than 2,000 others.
At least three areas in Israel have observed citizens’ bullet-riddled bodies lying on the ground: Sderot, the adjoining kibbutz of Gevim, and Zikim beach to the north of the Palestinian coastal enclave.
There are reports of an undetermined number of fatalities at the event. At least 370 people have died and more than 2,200 have been injured on the Gaza side, bringing the total death toll to almost 1,000.
According to his family, a British man who had been a soldier in Israel’s army was among those slain in the Hamas strike.
According to Ukraine, two Ukrainian ladies who had been residing in Israel were also assassinated.
Cambodia reported the death of a Cambodian student, while Thailand reported the deaths of two of its people.
What Hamas has to say about the attack
Hamas claimed responsibility for the “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, in which it claimed to have launched 5,000 missiles.
Ismail Haniyeh, the organization’s leader, vowed to continue “the battle to liberate our land and our prisoners languishing in occupation prisons” on Saturday.
Hamas has urged “resistance fighters in the West Bank” and “Arab and Islamic nations” to take up arms.
Hezbollah, a Shiite terrorist organization in Lebanon with Iranian support, claimed to have fired missiles and artillery shells into northern Israel early on Sunday “in solidarity” with the Hamas offensive.
The Israeli army claimed that it fired artillery in retaliation.
