Over 100 Israelis have died and more than 900 were injured after rockets were fired from Gaza by Hamas militants, Israeli officials said Saturday.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said 198 were killed in Gaza and at least 1,610 were injured Saturday in retaliatory attacks from Israel.

“We are at war. We will win,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.

The Israeli Defense Forces earlier declared “a state of alert for war,” according to a statement issued by the IDF.

“Over the past hour, the Hamas terrorist organization launched massive barrages of rockets from Gaza into Israel, and its terrorist operatives have infiltrated into Israel in a number of different locations in the south,” the IDF said early Saturday.

  • boyi@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    It makes sense, but not the way you think. They know they are going to lose. They know they are going to suffer greater retaliation. But they will have to endure it. And they know many of them will die because of it. They were ready to face the consequences.

    I don’t think this campaign is against the Israeli government. It’s a strategic move targeted towards the illegal Israeli settlers and those who dare to encroach into the disputed Palestinian land! - to instill traumatic fear. It’s a warning message to these people, even though the have the best military and the best surveillance techs, the government can’t protect them. A stern message to them: If you dare to take this land from us, one day we will come to take it back from you, even your life, at the time you least expected and every efforts you put before will be in vain.

    • Sheldybear@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Except that these attacks weren’t against the settlers (who are taking land in the west bank), it’s targeting the civilians in South Israel who have lived there for ages. I think the world was expecting to see this violence in the west bank, not gaza.

      • boyi@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        I could be wrong on that. I stand corrected if that’s the case.

        I think the world was expecting to see this violence in the west bank, not gaza.

        Yes, but it’s best to attack where it is least expected. Other than that, it’s open to discussion/speculation. Whatever it is, it is a very well thought and executed plan where they expect great retaliation. One thing, The Hamas don’t trust Fatah, and some pro-Palestin Muslim even regard Fatah as traitor. Maybe the Saudi-Israel normalisation plan got something to do with it? Maybe someone can give their input on these.

        I check Ofakim, one of the affected area.

        In 2010, about one-fifth of the residents were ultra-Orthodox and one third were immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Most of the rest were members and descendants of the founding generation of the immigrants who arrived in the town in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, there are small communities of Ethiopian Jews and Palestinians originally from the Gaza Strip who were resettled in Israel after collaborating with Israeli authorities.[5][6]

        According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Ofakim had a population of 30,662 in 2019, and the population is growing at a rate of 1.4% a year. The percentage of the share of the Arab Palestinian population of Ofakim is very small and about 0.7%.[1]

        You’re right on that. They population has been there since the 50s.

      • Skates@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        it’s targeting the civilians in South Israel who have lived there for ages

        Not for ages. Only since the country was split into two with no regard for actual Palestinian input on this. There’s been less than 100 years since then. Not enough time to heal, especially when nothing was done to make things right. It’s like telling black people in the US in 1700 “it’s been ages since you’ve been brought here on a boat, just let it go, this is the way things are now”. Very much fuck you & no.

        It seems like a very clear message by Hamas: if you moved into my house by force, you are not a civilian. Get out of my house.

    • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It still makes no sense to me from that perspective. Shouldn’t they, of all people, understand that trying to frighten people into submission can instead embolden them? Israel’s brutal actions against Palestinians didn’t crumble Hamas. It created more support for it.

      What do they think will happen now? They’ve attacked and kidnapped civilians. Even people sympathetic to the Palestinians plight are horrified at this.

      All Hamas has done here is turn more of the world against them, brutalized civilians, and actually given Israel partial justification for their response. This is the first time in my adult life that I’ve seen such violence against Israel.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        People can only take so much. It’s part of the bully play book. Push them until they break and then blame them for everything.

      • Zanz@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        The only options are be genocided or be genocided quicker if there’s no fear of retaliation. They’re choosing to go out on their own terms.

        • Shardikprime@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Hamas sets up military operations in a civilian building by force - the civilians have no say in this and get killed if they protest Hamas then uses that building to launch rockets, store ammunition, communication stations How the fuck should Israel proceed to neutralize those sites? Because what they do is:

          “Roof knocking”: Hitting the building’s roof with a small explosive to announce that it will fall in 15 minutes (see video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teevWpXlRZY example from yesterday) Automatic SMS and phone calls impacted areas warning and urging to evacuate Precision strikes that make the building fall vertically with minimal damage to the areas As a result, civilians (and potentially military personnel) are given a chance to evacuate while ammunition stashes, rocket launching stations etc stay in the building and are destroyed.

          To be honest, I’m shocked those protocols are still used after Hamas’s attack. I would absolutely not be surprised of these measures stopped.

          The anti-Israel don’t care that Israel is bending over backwards to minimize human suffering while fighting a decades long war against people who are deliberately trying to kill their children.

          Remember how upset they are when Israel does something 100 percent defensive, like build a security fence to keep out an endless stream of suicide bombers?

          This isn’t good-faith criticism.

          These people hate Israel for this that they works be applauding other countries for. And we all know why