Israeli PM Declares ‘We Are at War’ as Hamas Unleashes Rocket Attacks, Terrorists Infiltrate Country

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared “we are at war, and we will win it” early Saturday as the country’s air force began striking targets in Gaza in response to a surprise Hamas attack on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, involving more than 3,000 rockets and groups of terrorists descending on Israeli territory by land, sea, and even paraglider.

At least 70 Israelis have been killed in the fighting and at least 908 have been injured, according to Israel’s emergency service, and dozens have been taken hostage, according to the Israeli Defense Forces. Netanyahu formally declared war Saturday afternoon and vowed in an address that Hamas “will pay a price it has never known.”

As rockets rained down on central and southern Israel early Saturday morning, armed groups of Hamas terrorists poured into towns across the country, riding in pickup trucks and motorcycles, the Times of Israel reported. In response, the IDF deployed forces to the south, where troops began engaging with the Hamas invaders, who infiltrated Israeli territory after breaching a fence that separates Israel and Gaza.

The Israeli Air Force also scrambled dozens of jets to strike four command centers and 17 military compounds in the Gaza strip, the air force announced on X. At least 198 Palestinians have been killed and 1,610 have been wounded in the retaliatory attacks, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The military arm of Hamas, Al Qassam Brigades, justified Saturday’s brutal attack as being “in defense of the Aqsa Mosque,” which is located on a hotly contested religious site in Jerusalem that is considered hallowed ground by both Jews and Muslims.

The site, which is referred to as Temple Mount by Jews, is controlled by a Jordanian trust but Israel maintains a police presence there. Jews and Christians were long forbidden from praying at the site to avoid antagonizing the Muslim population, but that prohibition has slipped in recent years as Israeli nationalists have made a point of showing up to pray.

Hamas’ military wing cited Jewish prayer being conducted at the holy site in explaining Saturday’s attack, saying that “aggression” at the site had “reached a peak in the past days.”

Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political arm, celebrated the attack, describing it as “heroic” in a statement and calling on Muslims around the world to come to the “defense of Al-Aqsa [religious complex in Jerusalem] … to do whatever they can, for this is not the time to wait and watch.”

Palestinians took to the streets in cities across the West Bank to celebrate the attack, cheering and chanting “God is great,” Palestinian media reported.

Iran, Hamas’ primary financial backer, also hailed the attack as a positive development and congratulated Hamas fighters.

“We congratulate the Palestinian fighters,” said Yahya Rahim Safavi, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to Reuters. “We will stand by the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem.”

Hezbollah, the extremist Lebanese shiite group that fought a war against Israel in 2006, said that they were monitoring the attack but stopped short of saying they would join the fight, as Hamas urged them to do.The group said in a statement that they were “closely following the important developments in the Palestinian situation with great interest.”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration said that it “unequivocally condemns the unprovoked attacks by Hamas.”

“There is never any justification for terrorism,” said National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson in a statement. “We stand firmly with the Government and people of Israel and extend our condolences for the Israeli lives lost in these attacks.”

That statement came after a since-deleted social-media post urging Israel “to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks.”

Biden followed up a short time later by condemning the “appalling assault on Israel by Hamas terrorists” in a statement and saying that the U.S. stands “ready to offer all appropriate means of support” to Israel.

Netanyahu spoke to Biden by phone as the attacks unfolded and told the president that “a forceful and continued battle will be required, in which Israel will triumph,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Saturday marks the first time Israel has formally declared war since 1973.