Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, launched one of the broadest invasions on Israeli territory for 50 years.
Hamas began firing thousands of rockets on Saturday morning, striking targets as far away as Tel Aviv and the outskirts of Jerusalem, which rarely see any direct hits because of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
About an hour after the first rocket attacks, Hamas militants crossed into Israel by land, sea, and air, according to the Israeli military, leading to some of the first pitched battles between Israeli and Arab forces on Israeli soil in decades.
The militants infiltrated 22 Israeli towns and army bases and took civilians and soldiers hostages, many of whom they brought back to Gaza. At least 700 Israelis had been reported dead by officials as of Sunday.
Muhammad Deif, the leader of the military wing of Hamas, said in a recorded message that the group had decided to launch an “operation” so that “the enemy will understand that the time of their rampaging without accountability has ended.”
He cited Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, which it captured during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, recent Israeli police raids on the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and the detention of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Israelis to brace themselves for a long and difficult war on Sunday, a day after Hamas, launched its largest surprise attacks in decades.
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 the Islamic Resistance Movement. The group, like most Palestinian factions and political parties, insists that Israel is an occupying power and that it is trying to liberate the Palestinian territories. It considers Israel an illegitimate state.
Its refusal to recognize Israel is one reason why it has rejected peace talks in the past. In 1993, it opposed the Oslo Accords, a peace pact between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The group presents itself as an alternative to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has recognized Israel and has engaged in multiple failed peace initiatives with it. The PA is today led by Mahmoud Abbas and is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Hamas has over the years claimed many attacks on Israel and has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, and Israel. Israel accuses its archenemy Iran of backing Hamas.
