Al Jazeera reported that at least 232 people were killed on Sunday in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza as a result of Israel’s retaliatory strikes in response to the Hamas rocket launch and the unprecedented ground assault in the Middle Eastern nation. On Saturday, Hamas fighters launched the largest offensive against Israel in years, invading regions in the south of the country in response to a barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. Israel’s national rescue service claims that the attack was the bloodiest in recent memory and that more than 300 people died as a result.
Also captured and brought into Gaza were a sizable number of Israeli citizens and military personnel. According to Al Jazeera, Israel and Hamas both asserted that gunfights were still going on throughout Israel late on Saturday. Hamas fighters who crossed into Israel by land, sea, and air carried out the attack, which got underway at 6.30 am local time on Saturday (03:30 GMT). Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, warned Hamas that its use of rockets and a ground assault was a “grave mistake.”
“Citizens of Israel, we are at war. The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message from military headquarters in Tel Aviv after the attacks broke out.
Israel’s military launched a series of air raids on Gaza in response to the attacks.
Senior Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif declared that the rocket launch was the beginning of “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”, urging Palestinians all over the world to resist Israeli occupation.
Hamas would pay a “heavy price for its actions”, the Israeli military told citizens living near the Gaza Strip, ordering them to remain inside their houses.