Gaza vs Israel War: Hamas launch major rocket attacks on Israeli cities; Israel declares war alert, launch multiple retaliatory strikes on Gaza

Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip carried out a large-scale surprise attack on Israel’s largest commercial city of Tel Aviv and elsewhere Saturday morning infiltrating land, air and sea taking captive dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip announced the beginning of a new operation against Israel. It said that their forces Al Aqsa brigade fired thousands of rockets toward the Israeli side on Saturday morning. Media outlets in Israel say about 2,200 rockets have been fired from Gaza.

Gaza is one of the most densely packed places in the world, an isolated coastal enclave of almost 2 million people crammed into 140 square miles.

Hamas, the group running the besieged Gaza Strip, launched the biggest operation on Israel in years on Saturday, killing dozens of people and wounding hundreds after fighters crossed into Israel under the cover of a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza. Meanwhile, Hamas social media accounts posted footage of what were said to be Israeli captives moved alive into the Gaza Strip.

Hamas says its fighters are engaged in fighting in 25 locations in Israel

The surprise operation from Gaza came on the heels of the killing of four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, widespread Israeli settler attacks, especially in Huwara, near Nablus and increased tensions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli media say at least 100 people have been killed on Israel side and 200 on Palestine side and more than 2000 injured on both sides.

Israeli media report more than 2,000 rockets were fired into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. The militant group Hamas says it fired 7,000 rockets.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the country was “at war” on Saturday, after Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a deadly barrage of rockets and sent gunmen into Israeli territory in a major escalation of the long running conflict between the two sides.

Israel launches operation ‘Swords on Iron’ as the Israeli military had begun retaliating with airstrikes on multiple Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s military says it has carried out airstrikes on sites of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a major rocket attack by the group.

Less than an hour ago, an 11 story building, the 2nd tallest high-rise building in Gaza belonging to senior Hamas officials, accommodating residence, law firms’ media etc was destroyed by Israel rocket.

The Israeli military launched air raids on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 198 Palestinians and wounding hundreds of others, according to the enclave’s ministry of health.

A senior Hamas leader has said that the group has captured enough Israeli soldiers in the unprecedented attack to make Israeli authorities free all Palestinian prisoners in its jails.

“We managed to kill and capture many Israeli soldiers. The fighting is still on,” Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chief of Hamas’s political bureau, told Al Jazeera on Saturday.

“Our detainees in [Israeli] prisons, their freedom is looming large. What we have in our hands will release all our prisoners. The longer fighting continues, the higher the number of prisoners will become,” added al-Arouri, who said senior officers were among those captured, but did not provide any figures.

According to the latest figures by Addameer, a prisoners’ rights NGO, nearly 5,200 Palestinians are in Israeli jails, including 33 women, 170 minors and more than 1,200 placed under administrative detention.

The Israeli army has acknowledged soldiers and commanders have been killed and prisoners of war have been taken. It has not given any figures.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri says group expects fighting with Israel to continue. He said the group is engaged in a battle for freedom.

“This is not a [hit-and-run] operation; we started an all-out battle. We expect fighting to continue and the fighting front to expand. We have one prime target: our freedom and the freedom of our holy sites,” he told Al Jazeera.

Al-Arouri said Palestinians have a right to freedom, to fight the Israeli occupation and to safeguard their holy sites.

“We will continue to fight until we are rewarded with victory, freedom and independence,” he said.

As observers noted that a land invasion by Israel could be imminent, Hamas said it is ready for “the worst-case scenario”.

“All scenarios are now possible and we are ready for an [Israeli] land invasion,” he added.

Palestinian officials say ending the Israeli occupation of their territory is the only guarantee for “security, stability and peace” in the region.

The US, meanwhile, said it will work to ensure Israel “has what it needs to defend itself” and the UK, EU and Ukraine have condemned Hamas’s operation in Israel.