Israeli PM declares 'we are at war' after at least 22 killed in surprise Hamas attack - with fighters on paragliders crossing border

At least 22 people have been killed and hundreds more wounded after thousands of rockets were fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip in a surprise attack by the Hamas militant group.

Large plumes of black smoke could be seen rising from a number of Israeli towns on Saturday morning.

Palestine's President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves against the "terror of settlers and occupation of troops".

This, combined with the number of fatalities so far, make the attack the deadliest in Israeli territory in years.

Phone footage also showed Hamas fighters attempting to reach Israel on small boats, and in a highly unusual development, a number of fighters appeared to have crossed the border using paragliders, reaching the town of Sderot where gun battles were heard.

Footage from security cameras showed them entering the city in pick-up trucks and motorbikes.

Comparison of the two. I suspect Israel will crush them like a bug. The key player here is Hamas.

Israel
Population • 2023 estimate 9,790,400 (93rd)

Israel Defense Forces
Military age 17
Conscription: 24–34 months
Available for military service: 1,554,186 males, age 17–49 (2016), 1,514,063 females, age 17–49 (2016)
Fit for military service: 1,499,998 males, age 17–49 (2016), 1,392,319 females, age 17–49 (2016)
Reaching military age annually: 60,000 males (2016), 60,000 females (2016)
Active personnel: 169,500
Reserve personnel: 465,000

State of Palestine
Population • 2022 estimate 5,350,000
– West Bank 3,190,000
– Gaza Strip 2,170,000

The Palestinian National and Islamic Forces is a coalition formed shortly after the outbreak of the second Intifada with the authorization of Yasser Arafat and led by Marwan Barghouti. The coalition coordinates the agenda of its members and helps plan and execute joint political actions against Israel.

The coalition includes both PLO and non-PLO factions, some organizations are listed as terrorist in the West.

The group’s committee includes representatives of the following organizations:

Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) has maintained a number of militant groups since its founding. Its mainstream military branch is al-’Asifah. Fatah is generally considered to have had a strong involvement in terrorism in the past, though unlike its rival Islamist faction Hamas, Fatah is no longer regarded as a terrorist organization by any government.
[I could not find a personnel count for Fatah]

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP);
[Although they have claimed responsibility for various terrorist attacks in Israel, I could not find a personnel count for the PFLP]

Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas);
Hamas (UK: /hæˈmæs, ˈhæmæs/, US: /hɑːˈmɑːs, ˈhɑːmɑːs/; Arabic: حماس, romanized: Ḥamās, IPA: [ħaˈmaːs]; an acronym of حركة المقاومة الإسلامية Ḥarakah al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah, lit. ‘Islamic Resistance Movement’) is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. It won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections and became the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip following the 2007 Battle of Gaza. It also holds a majority in the parliament of the Palestinian National Authority.

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades is Hamas’s military wing. . . While the number of members is known only to the Brigades leadership, Israel estimates the Brigades have a core of several hundred members who receive military style training, including training in Iran and in Syria (before the Syrian Civil War). Additionally, the brigades have an estimated 10,000–17,000 operatives

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP);
The DFLP is not listed as a terrorist organization by the United States government or the United Nations. It was dropped from the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in 1999, “primarily because of the absence of terrorist activity, as defined by relevant law...during the past two years.”
[Although they have also claimed responsibility for various terrorist attacks in Israel, I could not find a personnel count for the PFLP]

Palestinian People’s Party (PPP);
The Palestinian People’s Party (PPP; Arabic: حزب الشعب الفلسطيني Hizb al-Sha’b al-Filastini), founded in 1982 as the Palestinian Communist Party, is a socialist political party in Palestine and among the Palestinian diaspora. [They do not appear to have a military arm]

Palestinian Democratic Union (FIDA);
The Palestinian Democratic Union (Arabic: الاتحاد الديمقراطي الفلسطيني Al-Ittihad al-Dimuqrati al-Filastini), generally known as FIDA (Arabic: فدا) is a small Palestinian political party active in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). [They do not appear to have a military arm]

Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF, Khalid ‘Abd al-Majid faction) is a Palestinian political faction formed and led by Khalid ‘Abd al-Majid. The group emerged in 1991 as a split from the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, whose name it continued to use.

The PPSF, ‘Abd al-Majid faction is based in Damascus, Syria, and plays a negligible role in mainstream Palestinian politics, and is often seen as controlled by the Syrian government. The group is outside the PLO, but participates in the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces and the Damascus-based Alliance of Palestinian Forces.

The group formed an armed wing, the Palestinian Popular Jihad Brigades, in the Gaza strip in July 2008. In October 2008, the group declared itself part of an alliance with the Nasser Brigades and the Palestinian Freedom Movement.

It has taken part in the Syrian Civil War on the side of the Syrian government, fighting against the Syrian opposition in the Siege of Eastern Ghouta, the Battle of Yarmouk Camp (2015), the Southern Damascus offensive (April–May 2018), and other battles. [I could not find a personnel count for PPSF]

Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF);
The Palestinian Liberation Front (Arabic: جبهة التحرير الفلسطينية, PLF) is a Palestinian political faction. Since 1997, the PLF has been a designated terrorist organization by the United States and by Canada since 2003. The PLF has also been banned in Japan.

One notorious incident was the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship MS Achille Lauro on 7 October 1985. The hijackers’ original aim was to use the ship to slip into Israel. However, crew members discovered them cleaning weapons, and the group then seized control of the ship, murdering an elderly wheelchair-dependent Jewish New Yorker, Leon Klinghoffer.
[I could not find a personnel count for PLF]

Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (PIJ) (Arabic: حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn), commonly known simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist paramilitary organization formed in 1981.

PIJ formed as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and was influenced ideologically in its formation by the Islamic regime in Iran. It is a member of the Alliance of Palestinian Forces, which rejects the Oslo Accords and whose objective is the establishment of a sovereign Islamic Palestinian state. It calls for the military destruction of Israel and rejects a two-state solution. The organization’s financial backing has historically come mainly from Syria and Hezbollah. Since 2014, PIJ has seen its power steadily increase with the backing of funds from Iran.

The armed wing of PIJ is Al-Quds Brigades (also known as “Saraya”), also formed in 1981, which is active in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with its main strongholds in the West Bank being the cities of Hebron and Jenin. Its operations have included suicide bombings, attacks on Israeli civilians, as well as the firing of rockets into Israel. PIJ has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel.

Size: 8,000 (2011) Assume Wiki means military personnel]

Arab Liberation Front (ALF) (Arabic: جبهة التحرير العربية Jabhet Al-Tahrir Al-’Arabiyah) is a minor Palestinian political party, previously controlled by the Iraqi-led Ba’ath Party, formed in 1969 by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and then headed by Saddam Hussein.

ALF has not been involved in armed attacks on Israel since at least the early 1990s and it is no longer believed to possess any significant military capabilities. It is not designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States, and is not on the terrorist lists of the UN, the EU or any other country.

Palestinian Arab Front (PAF);
Palestinian Arab Front (Arabic: الجبهة العربية الفلسطينية Al-Jabhet Al-’Arabiya Al-Falestiniyeh, PAF) is a minor Palestinian Arab nationalist faction.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) (Arabic: الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين – القيادة العامة) or PFLP-GC is a Palestinian nationalist militant organization based in Syria.

It was founded in 1968 by Ahmed Jibril after splitting from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

Since the late 1980s PFLP-GC had been largely inactive in military activities, but re-emerged during the Syrian Civil War fighting on the side of the Ba’athist Syrian Arab Republic.

The group has a paramilitary wing called the Jihad Jibril Brigades. Membership 500-1,000 (2004), 800 (2019)

Islamic National Salvation Party; [No info on Wiki]
(Hizb al-Khalas al-Watani al-Islami, in Arabic) Created in Gaza, on 19 March 1996, so as to realize “Palestinian national unity,” this Palestinian entity attracted influential figures from the Muslim Brotherhood. The INSP made a point of distinguishing itself from HAMAS, in that its political program provided for no form of armed resistance. Its main leaders were Fuʾad Nahal (president), Ismael Abu Shanab, Fikr Abdul Latif (spokesperson), and Ahmad Mahmud Bahar.

Popular Liberation War Pioneers As-Sa’iqa (Arabic: الصاعقة, romanized: as̱-S̱a‘iqah, lit. ‘Thunderbolt’) officially known as Vanguard for the Popular Liberation War - Lightning Forces, (Arabic: طلائع حرب التحرير الشعبية - قوات الصاعقة) is a Palestinian Ba’athist political and military faction created and controlled by Syria. It is linked to the Palestinian branch of the Syrian-led Ba’ath Party.

By August 2018, As-Sa’iqa began to lay off a substantial number of its fighters, mostly because they were no longer needed and because of lack of funds.

Palestine13 (P13) [I could not find anything on this group]

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