Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country is “at war” following a surprise large-scale attack by Palestinian militants from Gaza early on Saturday morning. The militant group Hamas, which controls the coastal enclave, fired a barrage of rockets and sent gunmen into Israel in a multi-pronged and unprecedented attack in the long-running conflict between the two sides.
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.