Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared war on Hamas after the
Gaza based militant group launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Saturday.
In what was the biggest attack on Israel in years,
Palestinian militants launched a barrage of more than 5000 rockets in a co-
ordinated attack by land,
sea and air.
The Hamas military commander called the assault "Operation al Aqsa flood" and
urged Palestinians everywhere to fight against Israeli occupation.
Rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip as far north as Tel Aviv.
Gunmen also entered the country from the south in a stunning infiltration of Israel's
defenses.
Hamas said it had taken over several Israeli villages in the country's south.
Gunfire could be heard echoing across the town of Sderot which lies less than a mile
from the Gaza Strip.
Residents have been warned to stay inside while emergency responders activated amidst the
fighting
Palestinian families across Gaza have begun fleeing their homes in fear of Israeli
retaliation.
Israel's defense force is the Middle East's most formidable, made up of
169,000 active duty troops and
465,000 reservists.
It is supplied with some of the world's most advanced drones and weaponry.
The US provides Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military assistance.
Saturday's attack holds deep significance for Israel as the country has just marked 50
years after the Yom Kippur war. In that conflict.
In 1973 Egypt,
Syria and other Arab countries launched a war on Israel on the holiest
day of the Jewish calendar.
I think right now Israelis are in a severe state of shock.
They almost don't have words because they're just so surprised by this.
And I think that,
uh, right now people are being called up to reserves all across the country.
Uh, obviously,
there's been a lot of political turmoil in Israel.
Um,
there have been a number of,
uh, military reservists who said that they would refuse to report for duty because of,
uh,
this battle over the judiciary in Israel.
Everybody's put that aside.
Now,
um, there's a mass protest movement that has called off all the protests and all the reservists who
originally had said that they wanted people to refuse to report for duty are
now urging everybody to report for duty.
So I think the country right now is just going into fight mode,
survival mode,
like real survival mode.
And I think that people probably don't want to start pointing fingers.
Um,
but very quickly that will start happening.
And uh obviously the,
the first finger will be pointed at the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and we'll see where he goes from here in response.
Israel's military launched airstrikes on what it said were Hamas targets in Gaza.