SDEROT, Israel, (AFP) – Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a large-scale surprise attack against Israel Saturday, firing thousands of rockets from Gaza and sending ground units to kill or abduct people as Israel retaliated with air strikes.

At least 40 people were reported killed in Israel, while Gaza authorities reported a death toll of 198 in the bloodiest escalation in the Israel-Palestinian conflict since May 2021.

“We are at war,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the military launched a series of strikes against targets of Iran-backed Hamas in the blockaded coastal enclave.

“The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” the right-wing veteran premier vowed after Hamas launched its first such combined air, ground and sea offensive, on a Jewish holiday and half a century after the outbreak of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

The Islamist group started the surprise attack around 6:30 am (0330 GMT) with thousands of rockets aimed at towns and cities as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, some bypassing the Iron Dome defence system and hitting buildings.

Hamas fighters — travelling in vehicles, boats and even using motorised paragliders — breached blockaded Gaza’s security barrier and attacked nearby Israeli towns and military posts, sparking gun battles as panicked residents hid out in bunkers.

Bodies were seen lying on the streets of the town of Sderot near Gaza.

“Send help, please!” one Israeli woman sheltering with her two-year-old child pleaded as militants outside opened fire at her house and tried to break into their safe room, Israeli media reported.

AFP journalists witnessed armed Palestinians gathered around an Israeli tank that was partially in flames, and others returning to Gaza City driving a seized Israeli Humvee.

– ‘Gates of hell’ –

Israeli army Major General Ghasan Alyan warned Hamas had “opened the gates of hell” and would “pay for its deeds”.

The army said its forces were fighting Palestinian militants on the ground in several locations near the Gaza Strip, in a defensive operation labelled “Swords of Iron”.

Israeli authorities said 10 people in Israel were killed by rocket fire and 30 by gunfire.

Hamas claimed to have captured several Israelis — raising the spectre of a far wider escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as international concern mounted.

The group released a video showing its fighters holding three men dressed in civilian clothes who were labelled “enemy soldiers” in the video caption.

The escalation follows months of rising bloodshed between Israeli forces and Palestinians, mostly in the occupied West Bank, and tensions around Gaza’s border and at contested holy sites in Jerusalem.

Hamas labelled its attack Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and called on “resistance fighters in the West Bank” as well as in “Arab and Islamic nations” to join the battle, in a statement posted on Telegram.

“We decided to put an end to all the crimes of the occupation (Israel),” said its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. “Their time for rampaging without being held accountable is over.

“We announce Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and we fired, in the first strike of 20 minutes, more than 5,000 rockets.”

Army spokesman Richard Hecht said Israel had counted at least 2,200 rockets aimed at its territory.