Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his first public statement following the surprise attack by Islamic Hamas on Saturday, said that the nation is "at war" and will extract an unprecedented price from its enemy.

"We are at war, not in an operation or in rounds, but at war. This morning, Hamas launched a murderous surprise attack against the State of Israel and its citizens. We have been in this since the early morning hours," Netanyahu told his countrymen in a televised address.