Over 100 Israelis have died and more than 900 were injured after rockets were fired from Gaza by Hamas militants, Israeli officials said Saturday.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 198 were killed in Gaza and at least 1,610 were injured Saturday in retaliatory attacks from Israel.
“We are at war. We will win,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.
The Israeli Defense Forces earlier declared “a state of alert for war,” according to a statement issued by the IDF.
“Over the past hour, the Hamas terrorist organization launched massive barrages of rockets from Gaza into Israel, and its terrorist operatives have infiltrated into Israel in a number of different locations in the south,” the IDF said early Saturday.
What you’re doing here is a stupid reduction. Hamas is not a rebel group, they’re a terrorist organization no different than ISIS or Al Qaeda. Hamas invafrd towns, then went from house to house murdering families and kidnapping random people on the streets, then stripped the corpses naked (even of the elderly and little kids), then dragged the corpses around in trucks to celebrate the murders in front of civilians. We’ve seen plenty of armed rebel groups before, but they don’t look like this. Hamas is a terrorist group. Stop trying to justify their vile actions
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123275572295011847 If they are so morally abhorrent then why did Israel prefer them over the PLO?
Hostage taking is a sensible strategy to gain leverage. Israel is going to respond to this, and having hostages means that Hamas can negotiate and try to mitigate the worst excesses.
Again referring to my first comment, Israel left Palestine with no other avenue of resistance. If Israel wanted a peaceful solution, they had 60 years to get it. Instead they chose violence, so please don’t start crying when the violence starts.
I’m not condoning Hamas morally, I’m saying that this reaction was to be expected.