Israel launches air strikes on Gaza Strip as Netanyahu tells his country 'we are at war'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country is “at war” with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu's comments in a televised address mark his first since Hamas launched a major, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak on Saturday. He ordered a call-up of reservists and promised that Hamas would “pay a price that it hasn't known until now.”

“We are at war,” Netanyahu said. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.”

The prime minister also ordered the military to clear the infiltrated towns of Hamas militants that remained locked in gunfights with Israeli soldiers.

Netanyahu's comments come as Hamas carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday. Israel says at least 22 people have died.

A press release from Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, also reports “hundreds of injured people”. Magen David Adom previously announced that a sixty-year-old woman had been killed by rocket fire. Hamas fired hundreds of rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday and infiltrated fighters into Israeli territory.

The rocket fire from several locations in the Palestinian territory began before 6:30 am local time and continued into the early morning. The Israeli army sounded sirens in the south and centre of the country, urging the population to stay close to shelters.

The armed wing of Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, announced that it had launched "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood" against Israel and fired more than 5,000 rockets.

Salah Arouri, an exiled Hamas leader, said the operation was a