Israel is preparing for an unprecedented military assault on the Gaza Strip after Hamas fighters took Israel by surprise early on Saturday morning.
Hamas infiltrated southern Israel with vehicles, hang gliders and by the sea, killing civilians and soldiers and taking a number of Israelis hostage.
Fierce fighting at close range took place in the border town of Sderot and a number of kibbutz communities as police and armed Israeli civilians engaged the Hamas militants.
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At the same time Hamas launched thousands of rockets at southern and central Israel, including at Tel Aviv and the Jerusalem area, scoring a number of direct hits on residential buildings, as sirens wailed sending residents running to bomb shelters.
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Panicked citizens from southern communities called emergency numbers begging for the army to send troops to engage the Hamas gunmen who opened fire on anyone on the streets.
Meanwhile, Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Israel that it is “at war” with Hamas militants.
Mr Netanyahu’s comments in a televised address mark his first since the multifront attack on Israel at daybreak on Saturday.
He ordered a call-up of reservists and promised that Hamas would “pay a price that it hasn’t known until now”.
“We are at war,” Mr Netanyahu said. “Not an ‘operation’, not a ‘round’, but at war.”
[ US will offer ‘all appropriate means of support’ to Israel after attack from GazaOpens in new window ]
The prime minister also ordered the military to clear the infiltrated towns of Hamas militants, who remained locked in gunfights with Israeli soldiers.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant warned that Hamas had made “a grave mistake” and promised that “the state of Israel will win this war”.
Israel responded with air strikes in Gaza and moved tanks to the Gaza border as tens of thousands of army reservists received emergency call-up orders.
Hamas published images showing its members infiltrating Israel and pictures of Israelis hostages in Gaza, described by the militant group as prisoners of war.
Hamas claimed 35 Israelis were taken to Gaza but this number was not confirmed by Israeli sources.
The Israeli rescue service said that its medics were tending to 16 casualties in southern Israel, including a woman in her 60s who was killed when a rocket fired from Gaza made a direct hit, and two people in serious condition.
There were reports of many more casualties on both sides, but authorities did not immediately release details.
Israeli media reported that dozens of people were taken to hospital in southern Israel. The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza reported injuries among “many citizens” without giving numbers, and loudspeakers on mosques broadcast prayers of mourning for killed militants.
Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s military Commander in Gaza, announced the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm”.
Mr Deif said Saturday’s attack was to “free” the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s old city, which was visited by a large number of Jews over recent weeks owing to the Jewish high holidays. He said this was only the first stage of Hamas’s renewed efforts against Israel.
“We warned the enemy not to continue their aggression against the Al-Aqsa mosque ... The age of the enemy’s aggression without a response is over.”
Saturday’s assault fell on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah at the end of the weeklong Sukkot holiday and came 50 years and one day since the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur war, when Israel was taken by surprise by Egyptian and Syrian armies.
It’s already clear that Saturday’s lightning strike from Gaza marks the biggest Israeli intelligence failure since the 1973 war. Hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives were involved in the planning and execution of Saturday’s attack and Israel had no inkling. When the fighting ends the government of Binyamin Netanyahu will have to answer some serious questions.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas says his people have the right to defend themselves against the “terror of settlers and occupation troops”. It remains to be seen if the violence will spread to the West Bank and East Jerusalem or, even more worrying from Israel’s point of view, to the northern border with Lebanon, where thousands of Iranian-backed Hizbullah fighters are based.
As Israel went on a war footing residents were urged to donate blood. Schools will remain closed on Sunday across the south and centre of Israel and all outdoor events have been cancelled. Foreign carriers have cancelled some flights to Israel but the country’s main Ben Gurion international airport remained open on Saturday.
The protest movement against the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul called off all protests and ordered all army reservists who had stopped volunteering as part of the protest to report immediately to their units.
Salah Arouri, an exiled Hamas leader, said the operation was a response “to the crimes of the occupation”.
He said fighters were defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
In the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, just two miles from the Gaza Strip, terrified residents who were huddled indoors said they could hear constant gunfire echoing off the buildings as firefights continued even hours after the initial attack.
“With rockets we somehow feel safer, knowing that we have the Iron Dome [missile defence system] and our safe rooms. But knowing that terrorists are walking around communities is a different kind of fear,” said Mirjam Reijnen, a 42-year-old volunteer firefighter and mother of three in Nahal Oz.
Israel has built a large fence along the Gaza border meant to prevent infiltrations. It goes deep underground and is equipped with cameras, high-tech sensors and sensitive listening technology.
The escalation comes after weeks of heightened tensions along Israel’s volatile border with Gaza, and heavy fighting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
It also comes at a delicate time for Mr Netanyahu’s far-right government.
The divisions within army ranks have threatened to undermine Mr Netanyahu’s reputation as a security expert who would do anything to protect Israel and the cohesion of an institution crucial to the stability of a country locked in low-intensity conflicts on multiple fronts and facing threats from Lebanon’s Hizbullah militant group.
Hizbullah congratulated Hamas, praising the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes” and saying the militants had “divine backing”. The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas about the operation.
Israel has maintained a blockade over Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. The bitter enemies have fought four wars since then.
There have also been numerous rounds of smaller-scale fighting between Israel and Hamas and other smaller militant groups based in Gaza.
The blockade, which restricts the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, has devastated the territory’s economy.
Israel says the blockade is needed to keep militant groups from building up their arsenals. The Palestinians say the closure amounts to collective punishment.
The rocket fire comes during a period of heavy fighting in the West Bank, where nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military raids this year.
In the volatile northern West Bank, scores of militants and residents poured into the streets in celebration at the news of the rocket barrages.
Israel says the raids are aimed at militants, but stone-throwing protesters and people not involved in the violence have also been killed. Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets have killed more than 30 people.
The tensions have also spread to Gaza, where Hamas-linked activists held violent demonstrations along the Israeli border in recent weeks.
Those demonstrations were halted in late September after international mediation.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for the immediate release of Israeli hostages who were kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
“News of civilians taken as hostages in their homes or to Gaza are appalling,” Borrell said. “This is against international law. Hostages must be released immediately.”
He declined to comment on how Hamas had managed to catch the army off guard. “That’s a good question,” he said.
The United States strongly criticised the attacks on Israel on Saturday.
The US National Security Council condemned what it described as “unprovoked attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians” and said US national security adviser Jake Sullivan had been in contact with his Israeli counterpart.
“There is never any justification for terrorism. We stand firmly with the government and people of Israel and extend our condolences for the Israeli lives lost in these attacks.”
US president Joe Biden was expected to speak to Mr Netanyahu on Saturday.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said he strongly condemns the firing of rockets into Israel on Saturday and called for “an immediate cessation of all hostilities”.
Mr Martin, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence, said he deeply regrets “the loss of life and the impact on civilians”.
– additional reporting from AP
