In his first statement on developments in southern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to a “state of war” and stressed that “the enemy will pay a price they have never seen before.”
“Hamas launched a surprise attack on our territories, we are at war. The enemy will pay a price they have never known before,” was Netanyahu’s statement, according to Haaretz. Later today, Netanyahu will hold a meeting with government officials to assess the situation.
Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galad said that Hamas made a grave mistake this morning by launching a war against the State of Israel, the soldiers “are fighting the enemy on all fronts.”
Meanwhile, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman said that so far some 2,200 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel and that terrorists have infiltrated Israel via “sea, air and land.” At the same time, the IDF announced that they had already begun striking Palestinian targets in the Gaza Strip from the air with dozens of aircraft in retaliation.