At least 4 Americans killed from terrorist attacks in Israel

Update: A minimum of four American citizens have been killed during the terrorist attacks in Israel, and another seven have gone missing and have not been accounted for, a US official reports. 

On Sunday, the United States State Department confirmed that they have reports of American citizens being among those killed and kidnapped by Hamas during the organization's attack on Israel. 

In an interview with NBC, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, "We have reports that several Americans may be among the dead." He added, "We are very actively working to verify those reports. Similarly, we’ve seen reports about hostages and they’re, again, we’re very actively trying to verify them, and nail that down.”

When asked what role the US would play in helping to secure the release of the hostages, Blinken responded that "any American, anywhere who is being detained or held hostage is going to be a priority for this government." He noted that he "doesn't want to get ahead of the facts." 

On Saturday morning Hamas militants executed a surprise attack on Israel launching over 2,200 rockets into the country while gunmen crossed the border. Reports show that over 250 Israelis were killed in the assault and 1,000 wounded. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally declared war after the Lebanese terrorist organization launched rockets into the Golan Heights area in support of Hamas. This is the first time since 1973 that Israel has invoked Article 40. 

In a statement, Netanyahu said, "Since this morning, the State of Israel has been at war. Our first objective is to clear out the hostile forces that infiltrated our territory and restore security and quiet to the communities that have been attacked."

"The second objective, at the same time, is to exact an immense price from the enemy, within the Gaza Strip as well," he continued. "The third objective is to reinforce other fronts so that nobody should mistakenly join this war."

In a statement on CNN, Blinken said that President Biden's direction "was to make sure that we're providing Israel everything it needs in this moment to deal with the attacks from Hamas."