The Israel Defense Forces launched fresh strikes on Gaza early Sunday local time as violence in the region continued overnight, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning of a long and difficult war ahead. The Hamas intelligence headquarters, two banks and a weapons production facility in Gaza were among 10 targets struck, the IDF said on Telegram. The land, air and sea attacks by Hamas — which took Israel’s vaunted security agencies by surprise — came after months of rising tensions over Israeli occupation and violence at the al-Aqsa Mosque, a disputed holy site in Jerusalem. At least 250 people have been killed in Israel, while the number of deaths in Gaza stands at 256, according to local authorities. Netanyahu told Gazans to “leave now” as he vowed to turn “all of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating” into “rubble.”
