ASHKELON, Israel — Palestinian militants launched a deadly land, air and sea attack inside Israel on Saturday, with fighters infiltrating the country’s south and firing a massive barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the unprecedented incursion in a video on social media: “We are in a war,” he declared, “not an operation, in a war.” He ordered strikes on Gaza and called for an “extensive reserve mobilization.”
At least 40 people have been killed, a spokesperson for the Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom said in a statement. The service has provided care to “hundreds” of injured individuals, from moderate to serious, it said, adding that helicopters, mobile ICUs and bullet-proof ambulances have been mobilized.
Graphic but unverified video and photos shared on social media suggested that toll could rise sharply.
Six Palestinians were killed in shelling and gunfire in Gaza, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
