Fighting in Israel and Gaza, in Photos

Israel and Gaza were on a war footing on Saturday after Palestinian militants launched one of the biggest attacks in years from the Gaza Strip, sending thousands of rockets into central and southern parts of the country as heavily armed gunmen crossed border fences into Israeli communities.

Within hours, Israeli fighter jets began airstrikes on targets inside Gaza, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on television: “We are at war.” Muhammad Deif, the head of the military wing of Hamas, the Islamic militant organization that controls Gaza, said earlier that the group had decided to launch an “operation” so that “the enemy will understand that the time of their rampaging without accountability has ended.”

Here are images from the confrontation.

This gallery contains graphic images.

Rockets being fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip. The assault began without warning about 6:30 a.m. on the Jewish Sabbath, and almost 50 years to the day since a surprise attack by Egyptian and Syrian forces on Israel that set off the 1973 war.

Members of Israeli security forces carrying an injured person in Ashkelon, about 10 miles north of the Gaza Strip. A hospital there reported receiving dozens of people in the first hours of the assault, some in grave condition.

A resident of Ashkelon looking out the window of his family’s apartment at destruction caused by a rocket fired from Gaza.

Palestinian militants riding a seized Israeli military vehicle. Militants infiltrated at least seven Israeli communities and army bases on Saturday morning, according to an Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht.

An Israeli soldier in the southern city of Sderot, standing by the bodies of Israelis killed by Palestinian militants who entered from the Gaza Strip.

Smoke rising after Israeli strikes in Gaza. Dozens of Israeli fighter jets hit targets in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said.

Residents in the Gaza Strip fleeing from near the border with Israel.

Relatives mourning over the bodies of Palestinian militants at the mortuary of a hospital in Gaza City.

Palestinians celebrating over a burned Israeli car in Gaza.

A building ablaze in Tel Aviv after rocket attacks.

Israeli rescue teams tending to a man in a building that received a direct hit in Ashkelon.

A damaged apartment in Ashkelon.

An Israeli military vehicle burning after it was hit by Palestinian gunmen.

Members of Israeli forces taking cover in Ashkelon.

The aftermath of a rocket strike in Ashkelon.

Yeshayahu Foyer, a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor, descending stairs at his home in Ashkelon, after looking at rocket damage to a house under construction next door.

An aerial view of Ashkelon showing vehicles on fire as rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli woman reacting over the body of a relative killed by Palestinian militants in Sderot.

Palestinians breaking into the Israeli side of Israel-Gaza border fence.

Carrying a Palestinian killed in an Israeli airstrike at the Erez crossing between Israel and the northern Gaza Strip.

Carrying the body of a Palestinian militant killed in Gaza.

Smoke rising in the Rehovot area, south of Tel Aviv, as rockets were launched from Gaza.

Looking out of a damaged building in Ashkelon.