Gaza Militants Fire Barrages of Rockets Into Israel in Surprise Attack

Palestinian militants fired barrages of rockets into southern and central Israel on Saturday in a shock assault, and the Israeli army mentioned that armed gunmen had crossed the border fence in a number of places and infiltrated Israeli border communities.

At the least one girl was killed within the preliminary barrages, in response to Israel’s ambulance service.

The assault started with none warning at about 6:30 a.m. on the Jewish Sabbath and the morning of a competition, the final of the collection of Jewish excessive holidays. It was virtually 50 years to the day after the shock assault by Egyptian and Syrian forces over Israel’s northern and southern frontiers on the opening of the 1973 struggle that traumatized the nation.

Throughout the first hour of the assault, salvos of rockets had slammed relentlessly into Israeli cities and cities, putting as far north as Rishon LeZion, about 10 miles south of Tel Aviv, and Ramla, close to Israel’s worldwide airport. At 8:15 a.m. sirens additionally sounded in central Jerusalem, and loud booms could possibly be heard.

Unverified pictures on tv confirmed armed gunmen in a pickup truck capturing inside an Israeli neighborhood in addition to at the very least one hang-glider within the sky.

The Israeli army attributed the assault to Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, an impoverished coastal enclave that has been underneath blockade by Israel and neighboring Egypt for about 15 years.

“The Hamas terrorist group can pay heavy worth for its actions,” the Israeli army mentioned in an announcement.

Al Qassam Brigades, the army wing of Hamas, introduced a army operation “in protection of the Aqsa mosque,” the hotly contested holy website in Jerusalem that 1000’s of Jews have visited in current weeks, and towards the Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza.

The militants who crossed the border into Israeli territory had been armed with heavy machine weapons, submachine weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, in response to Israeli media experiences, and had been firing at pedestrians, vehicles and homes.

The ambulance service, Magen David Adom, issued an pressing name for blood and was organizing a particular blood donation drive at a hospital in central Tel Aviv.