Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is "at war" after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Saturday, firing thousands of rockets and entering Israel by land, sea and air using paragliders. At least 100 people were killed in Israel in the attacks.
As many as 1,000 Hamas fighters took part, U.S. Secretary of State Andrew Blinken said. The rampage included an assault on a crowded music festival where authorities had removed about 260 bodies by Sunday.
Israel struck back including with airstrikes that flattened a 14-story tower that held Hamas offices. More than 400 people were reported killed in Gaza and at least 700 in Israel.
Israel has previously carried out major military campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza that it portrayed as wars, but without a formal declaration.
The declaration gives the green light for Israel to take “significant military steps” against Hamas. It came as the military continued efforts to stamp out the last groups of militants in southern Israel following the attack.
Israel hit more than 800 targets in Gaza by Sunday, its military said. That included airstrikes that leveled much of the town of Beit Hanoun in the enclave’s northeast corner.
Hamas had been using the town as a staging ground for attacks, Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters. There was no immediate word on casualties, and most of the community’s population of tens of thousands likely fled before the bombardment.
The leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which participated in Saturday’s attack, said it was holding more than 30 Israelis among dozens of captives in Gaza. He said they would not be released until all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are freed.
What prompted the attack?
Hamas officials cited long-simmering sources of tension including the dispute over the sensitive Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. Competing claims over the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, have spilled into violence before, including a bloody 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2021.
In recent years, Israeli religious nationalists — such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister — have increased their visits to the compound. Last week, during the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli activists visited the site, prompting condemnation from Hamas and accusations that Jews were praying there in violation of the status quo agreement.
Hamas also has cited the expansion of Jewish settlements on lands that Palestinians claim for a future state and Ben-Gvir’s efforts to toughen restrictions on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Tensions recently escalated with violent Palestinian protests along the Gaza frontier. In negotiations with Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations, Hamas has pushed for Israeli concessions that could loosen the 17-year blockade on the enclave and help halt a worsening financial crisis that has sharpened public criticism of its rule.
Some political analysts have linked Hamas’ attack to current U.S.-brokered talks on normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. So far, reports of possible concessions to Palestinians in the negotiations have involved the occupied West Bank, not Gaza.
Why Israel declared war?
The declaration came a day after an unprecedented incursion by Hamas fighters who blew through a fortified border fence and gunned down civilians and soldiers in Israeli communities along the Gaza frontier during a major Jewish holiday.
Conclusion
Israel says it has brought in special forces to try to wrest control of four sites from Hamas fighters after the militant group launched its unprecedented incursion into Israel. On Sunday, Israel formally declared war and gave the green light for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas for Saturday’s surprise attack. The Israeli military tried to crush fighters still in southern towns and intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
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