The military wing affiliated to Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades released a statement on Thursday morning briefing the group's military activities over the first twenty four hours of an operation they called "Oil Stain" which started Wednesday morning.This was Hamas' declaration of war - on Wednesday, December 24, 2008, three days before Israel launched Operation Cast Lead.
According to the statement, a total of 87 shells have been fired at Israeli targets bordering the Gaza Strip including 54 mortar shells, 31 homemade projectiles which Hamas calls "Qassam", and two Soviet-made Grad missiles.
Al-Qassa Brigades threatened to enlarge the "Oil Stain" to get more thousands of Israelis "under fire". The group asserted that its fighters are "far greater than surrendering to Israeli threats and that they became much more prepared to counter Israeli aggression and to defend themselves than in the past."
On Thursday, Hamas shot 7 Qassam rockets and 7 more mortars into Israel.
On Friday, Gaza terrorists shot some 25 mortars and rockets into Israel. One fell short and killed 2 Gaza girls.
For a full week, after Israel's counterattack, Hamas continued to refer to the war as Operation Oil Stain. Afterwards they changed it to "Battle of the Criterion."
But you will be hard pressed to find any mention of Hamas' declaration of war today, the fifth anniversary of Israel's response. (Wikipedia is one rare exception.)
Just like five years ago, today Israel is responding to attacks by Gaza on Israeli civilians. And just like then, the media is reporting Israel's response as if Israel initiated the fighting.