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    Hamas has launched an unprecedented attack against Israel. Here’s what to   
   know   
   Hadas Gold Richard Allen Greene   
   By Hadas Gold, Richard Allen Greene, Amir Tal, Ibrahim Dahman, Abeer   
   Salman, Kareem Khaddar and Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN   
      
      
   Updated 5:12 PM EDT, Sat October 7, 2023   
   People standing on a rooftop watch as a ball of fire and smoke rises above   
   a building in Gaza City on October 7, 2023 during an Israeli air strike.   
   At least 70 people were reported killed in Israel, while Gaza authorities   
   released a death toll of 198 in the bloodiest escalation in the wider   
   conflict since May 2021, with hundreds more wounded on both sides.   
      
      
      
   A large-scale surprise attack by Gaza militants on Israel has left   
   hundreds of Israelis dead, prompting vows of retribution from Israeli   
   Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a lethal volley of retaliatory   
   Israeli airstrikes.   
      
   “Citizens of Israel, we are at war – not in an operation, not in rounds –   
   at war,” Netanyahu said in a video message shortly after the militant   
   group Hamas, which controls the coastal enclave of Gaza, fired a barrage   
   of rockets and sent gunmen into Israel on Saturday in a multi-pronged and   
   unprecedented attack in the long-running conflict.   
      
   By nightfall, Israeli air strikes on Gaza had killed hundreds of   
   Palestinians and wounded over 1600, according to local health officials.   
      
   Still unknown are the fates of several hostages, including Israeli   
   soldiers, that Hamas claims to have captured.   
      
   Here’s what we know so far.   
   What happened?   
      
   Around 6:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, when many Israelis were likely to   
   have been asleep, sirens were heard as far north as the Tel Aviv area,   
   east to Beer Sheba, and many other locations in between as rockets flew   
   over Israel.   
      
   Militants from Gaza then entered Israeli territory by land, sea and air,   
   with some using paragliders, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. It   
   warned Israelis who live near Gaza to stay in their homes.   
   38 gaza israel 1007   
      
   Netanyahu says Israel is 'at war' as Palestinian militants launch surprise   
   air and ground attack from Gaza   
      
   Social media video obtained by CNN also showed multiple masked gunmen in a   
   pickup truck driving down a street in the Israeli city of Sderot, which   
   lies close to the Gaza border. Gunfire could also be heard in the video.   
      
   The IDF said around 2,200 rockets were fired at Israel. Hamas put the   
   figure at 5,000. To put that in context, some 4,000 rockets were fired   
   from Gaza into Israel during the 50-day war between the two sides in 2014.   
      
   Hamas military commander Muhammad Al-Deif called the operation “Al-Aqsa   
   Storm” and said that the assault on Israel was a response to attacks on   
   women, the desecration of the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and the ongoing   
   siege of Gaza.   
      
   Hamas said it captured Israeli soldiers, posting videos of soldiers it   
   allegedly captured on its social media accounts. Videos geolocated and   
   authenticated by CNN suggested that at least one Israeli soldier was taken   
   prisoner by the group.   
      
   “There are hostages and prisoners of war that Hamas took. There are also   
   deaths among IDF soldiers. We don’t have an exact number yet – we are at   
   war,” said IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.   
      
   The group also posted a video allegedly showing a captured Israeli   
   military vehicle. A CNN journalist saw a military Humvee being paraded   
   through Gaza. The IDF declined to comment on the matter. Another video   
   circulating on social media showed a tank on fire near the Gaza border.   
   Smoke billows from a residential building following an Israeli airstrike   
   in Gaza City on Saturday.   
      
   How has Israel responded?   
      
   In response to the attack, Israel launched “Operation Swords of Iron,”   
   striking a number of targets in the Gaza strip. Netanyahu said Israel’s   
   response to the Hamas incursion will “exact a huge price” from the   
   militant group.   
      
   “The IDF is reinforcing the south and the communities surrounding the Gaza   
   Strip with several operational forces,” Hagari said in a statement.   
      
   The IDF described the attack as “massive.” Around noon local time, it said   
   fighting was taking place on the ground in at least seven locations in the   
   country.   
      
   IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told CNN that “tens of thousands”   
   of Israeli reservists have also been called up to help, adding that he   
   hopes “there will be no more live terrorists in Israel” by the end of the   
   day.   
      
   He said Israel is “ready in the north” in case there are attacks from   
   Lebanon or Syria.   
      
   Inside Gaza, the roar of Israeli warplanes could be heard followed by loud   
   explosions and rising plumes of black smoke.   
      
   Palestinians were barred from crossing checkpoints into Jerusalem from the   
   West Bank, and Israel said it will close all educational facilities on   
   Sunday.   
      
      
      
   Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have existed since before the   
   nation’s founding in 1948. Thousands of people on both sides have been   
   killed and many more injured in the long-simmering conflict between the   
   two sides over the past few decades.   
      
   Violence has been particularly heightened this year. The number of   
   Palestinians – militants and civilians – killed in the occupied West Bank   
   by Israeli forces is at its highest in nearly two decades. The same is   
   true of Israelis and foreigners – most of them civilians – killed in   
   Palestinian attacks.   
      
   Israel and Hamas have been involved in armed conflict dating back as early   
   as the 1987 First Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, against Israel’s   
   occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.   
      
   Israel captured Gaza from Egypt in a 1967 war, then withdrew in 2005. The   
   territory, home to some 2 million Palestinians, fell under Hamas’ control   
   in 2007 after a brief civil war with Fatah, a rival Palestinian faction   
   that is the backbone of the Palestinian Authority.   
      
   After Hamas seized control of Gaza, Israel and Egypt imposed a strict   
   siege on the territory, which is ongoing. Israel also maintains an air and   
   naval blockade on Gaza.   
      
   Before Saturday’s operation, the last war between Hamas and Israel was in   
   2021, which lasted for 11 days and killed at least 250 people in Gaza and   
   13 in Israel.   
      
   Saturday’s assault occurred on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 war, when   
   Israel’s Arab neighbors launched a surprise attack on Israel on Yom   
   Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, on October 6, 1973.   
      
   What is Hamas?   
      
   Hamas is an Islamist organization with a military wing that came into   
   being in 1987, emerging out of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist   
   group that was founded in the late 1920s in Egypt.   
      
   The word “Hamas” is itself an acronym for “Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamia”   
   – Arabic for Islamic Resistance Movement. the group, like most Palestinian   
      
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