Palestinian fighters have infiltrated areas of southern Israel as a barrage of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip killed at least one woman and injured 15 others, according to Israeli medical workers.
The rocket fire began from multiple locations in Gaza starting at 06:30 am local time (03:30 GMT) on Saturday and continued for nearly half an hour, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported.
Mohammad Deif, a senior Hamas military commander, announced the start of a military operation in a broadcast on Hamas media, calling on Palestinians everywhere to fight.
Deif said the rockets fired marked the start of “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm”, according to reports. “We’ve decided to say enough is enough,” Deif said as he urged all Palestinians to confront Israel.
“This is the day of the greatest battle [to] end the last occupation,” he said, adding that 5,000 rockets had been launched.
Israel’s military told Israelis living around the Gaza Strip to stay in their homes and warned that Hamas “will pay heavy price for its actions”.
Israeli media reported that armed fighters had opened fire on passersby in the town of Sderot, in southern Israel, and footage circulating on social media appeared to show clashes in city streets.
Videos posted on social media showed what appeared to be uniformed Palestinian fighters inside the Israeli border town of Sderot. Another video appeared to a crowd of Palestinian men dancing around and on top of a burning Israeli tank. The authenticity of the videos could not immediately be verified.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to meet with his top security officials on Saturday morning.
Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said the “element of surprise” in the early morning attack which appeared to involve Palestinian fighters in trucks inside Israel and on paragliders, in addition to the rocket fire, will leave Israelis “shocked and stunned”.