Israel enters a new war with Hamas after one of the largest attacks from Gaza in the last 20 years

The Islamist movement launches the 'Al Aqsa Flood' operation with more than 2,200 rockets and a large incursion of its militias into southern Israel

MADRID, 7 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Israel has entered this Saturday into a new war with Hamas after the militias of the Islamist movement launched this Saturday one of the largest attacks in memory since they assumed control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, from where they have launched more than 2,200 rockets against southern Israel and large urban centers such as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, accompanied by an incursion of hundreds of its troops into border towns.

The 'Al Aqsa Flood' operation announced by Hamas around 07:00 this morning, which has so far cost the lives of 40 people and left more than 750 injured in Israel, has been immediately responded to by the Hebrew Army with a huge aerial deployment, Operation 'Iron Swords', in which dozens of Israeli fighter planes have hit numerous targets of the Islamist movement in the enclave.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has reported that at least 161 Palestinians have been killed and 931 wounded in the counterattack launched by the Israeli Army. Among the deceased is journalist Muhammad al Salhi, killed during his initial coverage of the events on the border between Gaza and Israel, in the east of Bureij, according to medical sources to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

In addition, and accompanying the barrage of rockets, Hamas forces are carrying out attacks on the ground in seven points in the south of the country: Kfar Aza, Sderot, Sufa, Nahal Oz, Magen, Be'eri and the Re'im military base. , where a still undetermined number of Israeli soldiers would have been captured by Hamas forces, according to the movement itself, although this has not been confirmed by the Israeli Army.

This new war culminates months of tension and violence, particularly in the West Bank, where dozens of Palestinians have died in Israeli operations and their populations have been targets of attacks by settlers, as well as Israeli residents have died in Palestinian attacks in towns near settlements.

"Citizens of Israel, we are at war. This is not an operation or an escalation, but a war," Netanyahu said in his first comment after the beginning of the operation announced this morning by the armed wing of the Islamist movement, the Ezzedin Brigades. al Qassam.

"Our country is at war and we are going to win it," added the prime minister, who has called an emergency meeting of his security council, warning that "our enemy will pay a price it has never known"; a speech with echoes of the great 2014 conflict between Hamas and Israel, when the Islamist movement's kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers led to a seven-week war in which more than 2,100 Palestinians die in Gaza along with 73 Israelis, including 67 soldiers.

The last large-scale conflict between both sides occurred in May 2021, eleven days of clashes after weeks of tension during Ramadan left at least 260 dead in Gaza and 13 in Israel.

For his part, Hamas leader Ismail Haniye has described the massive attack launched this morning by the group's armed wing from Gaza on Israel as a "battle for dignity" in the face of the "historic crimes" of Israel and the occupation. and the aggression of Israeli forces and settlers against the Palestinian population of the West Bank.

The Hamas operation takes place in the middle of the Israeli holiday of Simchat Torah, a celebration of the fundamental book of Judaism, and one day after the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Arab-Israeli war in October 1973, three weeks of fighting known to the Israelis like the Yom Kippur War and by the Arabs like the October War.

On that day, Egypt and Syria launched a two-pronged attack on Israel to regain their territories lost in the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and the Golan Heights in Syria. The conflict ended with the Camp David Accords and the establishment of Egypt as the first Arab country to normalize its relations with Israel.