ISRAEL (FOX 44/KWKT) — Hamas launched a coordinated attack against Israel on Saturday from the Gaza strip.

The group fired rockets across the Gaza border and militants stormed Israeli cities and towns, killing hundreds of civilians and soldiers.

“From the point of view of the Palestinians, you know, they’re just saying this is our land. It’s always been our land. These are our cities, our villages, our orchards, our farms. We did not do the Holocaust. Why is our land being taken to make up for something that Europeans did?”

Baylor University Political Science Professor Cummings also says there is enormous frustration and anxiety from both sides.

“For the Israelis, the Arabs did not recognize “our” declaration of statehood in 1948. We, we, we have no choice for our national security but to to expand, to make sure that we have all sorts of buffer zones to set up a wall,” says Cummings.

Fears of another world war are growing amongst many countries.

“This has the potential to explode into a larger set of conflicts because it is no longer about the original conflict. It is then about tensions between the United States and Iran, about tensions between Turkey and Syria, tensions between all sorts of other players,”

Professor Cummings says it was a matter of time and exhaustion for this long-winded turmoil to explode.

“In both Israel and Palestine, you have camps that are claiming that a harsher action is needed. And we have those pitted against each other right now. This is not the same kind of conflict we have seen in the past,” says Cummings.

FOX 44 will have continuous coverage of these conflicts.