Today, after a massive offensive by Sunni jihadists of Hamas launched in southern and central Israel, war has officially been declared. This was the largest strike on Israel in a half century since the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago, occurring at 8:30 PM PDT/6:30 AM IDT/0330 GMT. 5,000 missiles split the sky as Israel’s Iron Dome, Israel’s C-RAM system, intercepted as many as 95%,it’s standard rate of success. This means at least 250 long range missiles made it to Israel’s soil.

Based on the known projectiles that Hamas frequently possesses in their caches of arsenals, their longest range missile is the M-302, which has a range of 124 mi (200km).

It has also been reported that Russia has been sending some shorter range U.S. weapons captured in Ukraine to Iran.

Mohammed Deif, head of the Palestinian group’s military wing al-Qassam Brigades stated that the 20-minute strike was that of ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’. In addition, the militant group also launched ground attacks, infiltrating military bases and overrunning parts of two southern Israel towns, reportedly taking hostages in the process. Deif, according to Israeli military and intelligence officials, is a Palestinian militant who is responsible for the group’s current strategy of firing rockets at Israel and building tunnel networks through which highly trained fighters can infiltrate Israel.

At a parliament session on Saturday, Iranian lawmakers chanted “Down with Israel,” “Down with America,” and “Welcome Palestine,” celebrating the attack as a ‘proud operation”.

Since the recent ransom payment to Iran preceding the 78^th general UN conference when Ebrahim Raissi stood in front of distinguished delegates proselytizing religious superstitions and anti-West sentiments, his mind appears to have been fermenting on the verse of the sword rather than diplomacy.

“The state of Israel will act in any way necessary to protect its citizens and sovereignty from the ongoing terrorist attacks originating from the Gaza Strip and carried out by Hamas and other terrorist organizations,” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan wrote to the United Nations Security Council. Erdan was carried away by UN security for his interruption of Ebrahim Raissi’s UN speech last month when he held up a placard with the image of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who died last year after being arrested by the country’s morality police, with a caption reading, “Iranian women deserve freedom now!”

Hezbollah’s response to the attack is that Hamas’ operation is “message to those seeking normalization with Israel”.