Hamas launches 5,000 rockets before Palestinian forces enter southern Israel

Hundreds of rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel in the early hours of Saturday, October 7, and dozens of Palestinian forces infiltrated Israeli settlements, news media have confirmed.

The Israeli army, on Saturday morning, issued a statement and declared readiness for war conditions, warning that Hamas will bear severe consequences of the recent rocket attacks.

Hamas has claimed that on Saturday morning, it carried out an operation called “Al-Aqsa Flood” against Israel, launching 5,000 rockets towards Israel in 20 minutes, while dozens of Hamas militants entered southern Israel in a surprise attack.

Hamas also called on armed groups in Lebanon to join the fight against Israel, after which Hezbollah simultaneously targeted 3 Israeli military sites in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms on Sunday, October 8.

Following the operations of the Palestinian resistance forces inside Israel, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political office of Hamas, his deputy chief, Saleh al-Awari, and their companions made a prostration of gratitude.

The air strike alarm has been sounded throughout Israel, following these attacks.

Israel’s armed forces attacked targets in the Gaza Strip, flattening residential buildings in giant explosions, including a 14-storey tower.

The Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip in response to a Hamas offensive killed at least 313 Palestinians, and wounded 1,990, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Sunday.

The Israeli death toll from Hamas’s unprecedented incursion into Israel on Saturday has risen to 600, with more than 100 held ‘prisoner’, the Israeli government said on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip on Saturday and said the army will turn Hamas sites “into rubble.”

Hamas says their operation has just begun and is a response to Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.