Palestinians have right to defend themselves, says President Mahmoud Abbas

The right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves against the “terror of settlers and occupation troops” was stated by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas while presiding over a high-level meeting with some key defence officials on Saturday. According to the official news agency WAFA, President Abbas instructed officials in the emergency meeting to “provide protection for the Palestinian people and provide all that is necessary to bolster the resilience and steadfastness of the Palestinian people in facing the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation and settler gangs.” Additionally, he instructed that everything be done to support the Palestinian people’s resiliency and steadfastness in the face of the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation and settlement gangs. The most recent reports state that the Hamas rocket fire has resulted in at least 5 deaths and more than 100 injuries. According to The Times of Israel, Israel’s south and centre were subjected to continuous rocket fire for more than 3.5 hours on Saturday morning. “Israel is in an emergency” and Lapid would back a “harsh military response” to Hamas’s coordinated attack, a statement from the Opposition’s leader’s office said. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, stated earlier this morning that hundreds of missiles fired by Hamas terrorists hit Israel. “Citizens of Israel, we are at war. Not an operation not an escalation- at war,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter. “We are at war and we will win,” he asserted in a video statement according to translation provided by Reuters. “Our enemy will pay a price the type of which it has never known,” he added. The Israeli prime minister’s statement came after missiles from Gaza were fired into Israel. According to the needs of the Israel Defence Force, Yoav Gallant, the minister of defence in Israel, approved the draught of reserve personnel. The Jerusalem Post said that he also declared a “special security situation” on Israel’s Homefront, within a range of 0 to 80 km from the Gaza Strip. He added that this allowed the IDF to further provide safety instructions to people at “close and relevant sites.” The newspaper had earlier reported that Hamas fighters had entered Israel following a barrage of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. Red alert warning sirens were set off after the strike in Tel Aviv, which is around 70 km from the Gaza Strip, as well as in the southern Israeli communities of Sde Boker, Arad, and Dimona. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Saturday that his country was “at war” and had ordered the mobilisation of reserves to respond to the “surprise attack” by Hamas with a force the enemy had not anticipated, declaring that they would “win it.” In a video statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Netanyahu stated, “We are at war, not in an operation or in rounds, but at war. This morning, Hamas launched a murderous surprise attack against the State of Israel and its citizens. We have been in this since the early morning hours. I convened the heads of the security establishment and ordered, first of all, to clear out the communities that have been infiltrated by terrorists. This currently is being carried out.” Reserves have been called into action by Netanyahu. He urged Israeli citizens to follow the instructions given by Home Front Command and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). “At the same time, I have ordered an extensive mobilization of reserves and that we return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known. The enemy will pay an unprecedented price. In the meantime, I call on the citizens of Israel to strictly adhere to the directives of the IDF and Home Front Command. We are at war and we will win it,” Netanyahu said. (With agency inputs)