CNN —Israel has declared war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas after it carried out an unprecedented attack by air, sea and land on Saturday. Israel has pledged that Hamas will pay a heavy price and may now be preparing a ground incursion into Gaza. There, Hamas gunmen killed hundreds of people, including civilians and soldiers, and took hostages, sometimes from their homes. While Hamas has kidnapped Israelis before, it has never before taken dozens of hostages at once, including children and the elderly. On Monday, however, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said that the Islamic Republic was “not involved in Palestine’s response,” referring to the Hamas attack.

---

Persons: CNN — Israel, ”, Yoav Gallant, –, Fatah, Amir Cohen, Israel, Mahmoud Abbas, Oded, Gilad Shalit, Elhanan Tannenbaum, Richard Hecht, Saleh, Arouri, Al, Maya Alleruzzo, “ They’ve, Ebrahim Raisi, Ismail Haniyeh, “, Lloyd Austin, Najib Mikati Organizations: CNN, Hamas, Israel Defense Forces, Islamic, IDF, Palestinian Ministry of Health, West Bank, Palestinian, Palestinian Authority, Rights, Oslo Accords, Palestine Liberation Organization, PLO, Israel, European Union, US State Department, Biden, United Nations, Hezbollah Locations: Israel, Gaza, Gaza’s, Hamas, Al, Aqsa, Jerusalem, Israeli, “, Egypt, Yom Kippur, Sderot, Oslo, United States, Iran, Tel Aviv, ”, Al Jazeera, Ramat Gan, Washington, Islamic Republic, Palestine, Israel’s, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Lebanese