Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “we are at war, and we will win it” as the country’s air force began striking Hamas targets in Gaza on Saturday, in response to a surprise assault on the 50th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Hamas militants infiltrated Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip — including by paraglider and over the sea — and launched more than 2,200 rockets, Israeli military leaders said. The confrontation, which has killed at least 20 Israelis and injured scores of others, is one of the most serious in years following weeks of rising tensions along the volatile border. In a rare statement, Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif called on Palestinians inside Israel and Israel’s Arab neighbors to join the fight.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of armed Palestinian militants out of the Gaza Strip attacked early this morning, by land, sea and air (using gliders), overwhelming Israeli border defenses, killing soldiers and moving on to Israeli towns in the region. There has been fighting in the streets, with terrorists going house to house, killing families and dragging hostages back to Gaza. There has been a report on an attack on a massive forest rave that had been held not far from the border, with hundreds of casualties. Several small Israeli towns have been completely taken over by the attackers, and the police and army are dealing with dozens of hostage situations simultaneously. We don’t know how many have been killed so far, and how many of them were civilians. Probably hundreds. Possibly thousands.
And all this time they’ve been firing rockets toward most of the country. I live near Tel Aviv and I was woken by air raid sirens this morning, and heard the intercepts and the missile hits.
This is Israel’s 9/11. It’s our Tet Offensive. Many, many, many more people will die before this is over.
Alessan, since the salvos, like missiles and other projectiles from Gaza, seem long-distance, what does the govt say about taking measures at home? For me it might be guidelines similar to staying safe during an earthquake.
If you’re inside, and your apartment or office has a safe room (all buildings built since 1991 need to have one) get to it. If your building has a bomb shelter, and you can reach it quickly, go there, and if not, go to your building’s stairwell. If you’re outdoors, get inside the nearest building. Wait there until you hear the all clear or a reasonable amount of time has passed (about 10 minutes). Usually you just wait until you hear the explosions (hits or intercepts), and then go back home a few minutes later.
Shocking footage coming out. The reporting in the J-Post does not seem to be mentioning place names, but I have reports through social media of massacres of civilians in a number of settlements. If true, this is a huge failing of the Israeli security services.
We can only hope this is the bright flash of a light bulb before it burns out once and for all.
There are dozens of videos online (not on mainstream news sites, obviously) of Hamas terrorists going full-on ISIS, murdering civilians and torturing hostages. Recording what they are doing themselves and uploading it.
What is the US obligation in all this? Israel is not part of NATO, but they are certainly an ally. I guess we just watch and wait, and respond if asked.
I’m not condoning these attacks but Netanyahu’s insinuation quoted in the thread title that all of a sudden they are now at war with Gaza is ridiculous. Israel has had Gaza under blockade (a clear act of war) for the best part of two decades.
Appears to be an utterly massive failure by Israeli security and intelligence. Not only does it appear they weren’t aware of a plot that must have been months in the making, with dozens or hundreds or more involved, but defense forces were bypassed or otherwise caught completely off guard, with catastrophic results.
I still don’t understand what Hamas, Hezbollah or any of these organizations think they’ll accomplish. Sooner or later, they’ll get rolled by the IDF and have nothing to show for all this. Sure, they “make a statement,” but statements mean nothing when you eventually get forced back to Square One.
Technically, no obligation - IIRC, there is no actual defense treaty between Israel and the USA, although America has stepped in before in wars like Yom Kippur to provide indirect aid (although that was a much bigger war than this one.)
