Israel declares 'state of war alert'

The Islamist movement Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years on Saturday (07) in a surprise assault that combined gunmen crossing the border with a heavy barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, has announced a major operation against Israel.

It says the operation involves firing thousands of rockets from the besieged Palestinian enclave towards Israel, in response to the continuing provocations in Al-Aqsa and the measures taken towards Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The rockets fired from Gaza are believed to have landed in Ashkelon and at least one person was killed in the Kfar Aviv area of Israel.

Saturday's incident was the most serious since Israel and Hamas fought a 10-day war in 2021, with Israeli media reporting gunbattles between bands of Palestinian fighters and security forces in towns in southern Israel.

Hamas military commander Mohammad Deif announced the start of the operation in a broadcast on Hamas media, calling on Palestinians everywhere to fight.

The barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip during today’s attack by Palestinian fighters on Israel comes a day after the 50th anniversary of the start of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

That war lasted for barely three weeks but it shook the world economy and culminated in the Camp David Accords that saw Egypt become the first Arab country to establish diplomatic ties with Israel.

The war, known to Israelis as Yom Kippur and to Arabs as the October War, started when Egypt and Syria launched a two-front attack on Israel to regain their territories lost in the 1967 Six-Day War when Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and Syria’s Golan Heights.

Sri Lankan Embassy in Israel warns Sri Lankans to remain indoors and stay vigilant.