It can be tricky to determine how conflict starts in the Middle East.

This region is so weighed down by disputes over land and identity.

There's always some bit of new answers, scrap of context.

You run the risk of leaving out.

So instead of telling you how Israel's war with Hamas began this weekend, I'll tell you

what it felt like on the ground.

It was Saturday morning, Shabbat.

That's when the assault started.

One rocket after another, more than 2,000 of them.

That was shocking enough.

But then it starts to become clear as the morning goes on that the rocket fire was almost cover for something else

and that the real point of this operation of this attack was to sneak people across the border.

Greg Karlstrom covers the Middle East for the Economist.

After the rocket, he says, militants streamed into Israel on paragliders, drove through border fences,

even swam ashore from the Mediterranean Sea.

Then they started going house to house.

Greg was glued to Israeli TV as the full extent of the incursion became clear.

The first thing I heard was the iron dome, which immediately creeped me out because we haven't heard that for a while.

Greg watched as Israeli families phoned in from safe rooms to explain what was going on.

This woman said she was barricaded for more than 24 hours.

What we can hear is shooting going on outside, which looks like a terrorist walking around our houses.

It was just terrifying.

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