JERUSALEM – Over 200 Palestinians were martyred and 1,600 wounded in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza on Saturday.
The death toll was confirmed by the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave. Earlier, the Palestinian group Hamas fired a barrage of rockets into Israel and Israel responded with airstrikes.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas launched the biggest surprise attack in years on Israeli positions.
According to reports, over 2,000 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip combined with fighters penetrating into the towns occupied by Israeli forces. At least 40 Israelis were killed and several injured after the attack — one of the biggest in the history of the Palestine conflict — from Hamas.
The Israeli forces are also engaged in gunfights with Hamas fighters, who overrun the separation fence and even used paragliders to land over the Israeli border.
It was not immediately clear what prompted Hamas to launch such big attack, which followed by weeks of tensions along the Gaza frontier.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Hamas had made a big mistake and vowed that “the state of Israel will win this war.”
Videos circulating on social media showed Palestinian fighters destroying a tanks of Israel along the fence.
Palestine soldiers destroyed an Israel tank
Long Live Palestine ????????
We Pray Palestine will win. In Sha Allah #Palestine #Gaza #AlAqsaFlood #طوفان_الأقصى #IsraelUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/b2mnXVY6J8— Wahab Khan (@Itx_Wahab123) October 7, 2023
Another post claimed that the fighters have captured the Israeli military base and seized military equipment and vehicles.
Palestinian fighters captured the Israeli military base and seized military equipment and vehicles.#Isreal #طوفان_الاقصى
— Arslan Baloch (@balochi5252) October 7, 2023
Other footages showed Palestinian fighters dragging away an Israeli soldier. The authenticity of the videos is yet to be determined independently.
Salah Arouri, an exiled Hamas leader, said the operation was launched in response “to the crimes of the occupation.” He said the Palestinian fighters were defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the thousands of Palestinians, who are detained in Israeli jails.
On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Tel Aviv is “at war” with Hamas, adding that the group 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.”
He also ordered the military to clear the infiltrated towns of Hamas fighters that remained engaged in gunfights with Israeli soldiers.
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