Dozens of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel on Saturday morning, October 7, killing a woman. The shooting ends a truce that has been generally respected since the end of a five-day war in May, according to journalists from Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Gaza.
The leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said 5,000 rockets were fired into Israel early Saturday to launch Operation Al-Aqsa Storm. “We decided to say enough is enough,” said Mr. Deif, who urged all Palestinians to confront Israel.
The Israeli army also reported, on Saturday morning, the infiltration of “an undetermined number of terrorists” into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. “Residents in areas neighboring the Gaza Strip have been asked to stay at home,” the army added.
The shooting, starting from several locations in the Gaza Strip, began before 6:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. in Paris) and continued nearly forty-five minutes later. A woman in her sixties was killed “by a direct hit”, and fifteen other people were injured in southern Israel, said Magen David Adom.
In Israel, warning sirens sounded in several towns around the Palestinian territory, but also deeper in the territory, to the North and East, according to the army.
Infiltration of “an unknown number of terrorists”
In May, Israel launched an offensive against Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, triggering a five-day war between the Israeli army, Islamic Jihad and other armed groups in the territory that cost thirty lives. four Palestinians and an Israeli woman.
More than a thousand rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, most of them intercepted by the Israeli air defense system. Israel, for its part, had increased airstrikes on the small territory.
Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, had stayed away from this conflict. Neither Islamic Jihad, which recently celebrated its 36th anniversary, nor Hamas responded to AFP’s requests on Saturday morning.
