As the violence between Israel and Hamas rages on, groups and experts familiar with the Israeli governments decadeslong apartheid against Palestinians stress that it is inaccurate for officials and media to call the attacks unprovoked.

The Israeli military battled Palestinian fighters for a third day on Monday after Hamas broke through Israels security barrier with the help of thousands of rockets and attacked nearby settlements. At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel, and dozens of Israelis are being held hostage in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers have now launched powerful retaliatory strikes in the Gaza Strip, where the Hamas militant movement governs over 2 million Palestinian civilians. The U.S. and European Union have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization due to its armed resistance against Israels occupation, and the White House said Monday that at least nine Americans are among the dead.

Currently, about 500 Palestinians have been killed and over 2,200 injured from Israeli airstrikes, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. More than 120,000 Palestinians have been displaced in Gaza as a result of Israels bombardment.

The attack has resulted in strongly worded support for Israel from many Western nations, including the U.S., which along with the media are describing the violence as unprovoked and unprecedented. But experts on the regions history, as well as groups supporting Palestinian liberation, say that description is false .

IfNotNow, a progressive American Jewish group that opposes Israeli apartheid, said that while we watch the unfolding horrors with heartbreak and dread for our loved ones Israelis and Palestinians alike the attack by Palestinian fighters was a result of decades of oppression.

We cannot and will not say todays actions by Palestinian militants are unprovoked, the group said in a statement on Saturday. Every day under Israels system of apartheid is a provocation. The strangling siege on Gaza is a provocation. Settlers terrorizing entire Palestinian villages, soldiers raiding and demolishing Palestinian homes, murdering Palestinians in the streets, Israeli ministers calling for genocide and expulsion .

These are the provocations of the most extreme right wing government in Israels history and an emboldened fascist movement escalating this crisis across the land.