WATCH: Lebanese celebrate Hamas attack on Israel by distributing sweets
Hamas attack on Israel killed 100 people and injured more than 800
October 07, 2023
Lebanese people were seen distributing sweets and celebrating Palestinian group Hamas' recent attack on Israel in a new video surfacing on social media.
"We decided to put an end to all the crimes of the occupation (Israel). Their time for rampaging without being held accountable is over," said the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip.
"We announce Operation Al-Aqsa StormRight to defend and we fired, in the first strike of 20 minutes, more than 5,000 rockets."
Israel's army said its forces were fighting Palestinian fighters on the ground in several locations near the Gaza Strip. It dubbed its operation "Swords of Iron".
Army spokesman Richard Hecht said the gunmen conducted a combined raid "which happened through paragliders, through the sea and through the ground."
Nearly 100 people were killed in Israel, officials said.
Hamas later released a video showing three men captured by its fighters.
Infiltration from Gaza, an impoverished enclave home to 2.3 million people, has been rare since Hamas took control in 2007, leading to Israel's crippling blockade. Gaza is sealed off from Israel by a militarised border barrier.
The rocket barrage from Gaza — which Hecht said numbered at least 2,200 — left cars burning beneath residential buildings in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, about 10 kilometres (six miles) north of Gaza.
