You know it will be one of those days when you wake up and see Israel has said that they are at "war." Since 2006, Hamas and Israel have fought four wars, the most recent in 2021, and now there is a fifth war after thousands of rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip targeting Israel.
CNN reports:
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the country was "at war" on Saturday after Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a deadly barrage of rockets and sent gunmen into Israeli territory in a major escalation of the long running conflict between the two sides.
The early-morning surprise assault, which has left at least 40 people dead and over 779 injured, according to Israel's rescue service Magen David Adom (MDA), is unprecedented in recent history in its scale and scope. It comes on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 War in which Arab states blitzed Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
A barrage of some 2,200 rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Saturday morning starting at 6:30 a.m., according to the Israeli military, while armed gunmen infiltrated across the border in a ground assault into southern Israel. Multiple explosions were heard over Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and in southern Israel – some blasts likely the interceptions of incoming rockets – with air raids sent Israelis pouring into underground shelters.
"We are at war, not in an operation or in rounds, but at war," Netanyahu said in a video statement. Netanyahu added that Hamas, the Palestinian militant movement that runs Gaza, had "launched a murderous surprise attack against the state of Israel and its citizens."
Hamas claimed it had captured several Israeli soldiers near the border after its fighters entered Israel by land, sea, and air using paragliders. A Reuters video seems to back that up, according to CNN. We'll see.
Note: Ali Velshi's live coverage is balanced and informative.
