Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to exact “an unprecedented price” from Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning, after Israel awoke to a devastating deadly attack that included more than 2,200 rockets and ground invasions into southern Israeli communities.
Officials said that 22 Israelis had been confirmed dead, according to Israeli news reports, and scores more hospitalized with serious injuries. The Times of Israel reported that gun battles were still raging Saturday afternoon inside Israel between soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian fighters, and that Hamas claimed to have abducted a number of Israelis.
“Citizens of Israel, we are at war,” Netanyahu said in a video statement posted about 11 a.m. Israelis time (4 a.m. ET). “This morning Hamas initiated a murderous surprise attack against the State of Israel and its Citizens.”
The attack from Gaza came almost exactly 50 years after the Syria and Egypt invaded Israel on Oct. 6, 1973 in what became known as the Yom Kippur War. As in that war, Israel’s enemies again used the Jewish calendar against it today, striking on the holiday of Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah, the culmination of the week-long harvest festival of Sukkot and a three-week holiday period.
While rocket barrages from Gaza are common occurrences, hand-to-hand combat between Israeli soldiers and Gaza militants inside Israeli communities as was reported Saturday morning is rare if not unprecedented. During Israel’s summer-long battle with Gaza militants in 2014, Hamas fighters snuck inside Israel via underground tunnel but were thwarted by air attacks. On Saturday, Haaretz reported that the Israeli police said they were managing “a number of war zones” alongside the IDF, and that there were at least 60 terrorists in 14 locations throughout the country.
“We know about civilians who are barricaded in all kinds of places,” the police commissioner, Kobi Shabtai, said in a statement. “We call on everyone to stay behind closed doors, we will reach everyone in the end. We are moving from one scene to another. There are quite a few terrorists who have been killed in the various scenes. Unfortunately, there are also casualties from our forces and civilians who were nearby.”
Adele Raemer, who lives in a kibbutz near Israel’s border fence with Gaza, was providing regular updates on a Times of Israel blog from her safe room. “My stomach is turning. I hear much shooting, even through the the thick walls of the safe room,” she said. “I need to go to the bathroom, but dare not. I have literally never been this frightened
“I appreciate everyone telling me to stay safe,” she added, “but with terrorists going house to house I honestly do no know how one does that. If you are the praying type, this would be a great time.”
The leaders of political opposition parties and of the protest movement that has roiled Israel throughout the year issued statements of solidarity. The weekly Saturday night protests that have filled the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem with thousands were canceled.
“In days like these there is no opposition and no coalition in Israel,” read a statement from Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz, Avigdor Lieberman and Merav Michaeli, the leaders of the Yesh Atid, National Unity, Yisrael Beiteinu and Labor parties. They called for retribution against Hamas and its allies, saying “we are united in the face of terrorism.”
The protest organizers called on reservists to report for duty, saying: “We stand with the residents of Israel and give full support to the IDF and the security forces.”
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