(Dan Tri) – The fact that Hamas could deploy hundreds of gunmen to cross the border fence to attack Israel was a big surprise for Tel Aviv, causing the country’s government to grapple with the question of why such an attack could occur.
Dozens of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel on October 7, causing sirens to warn of incoming fire (Photo: Getty).
As explosions rang out and bullets flew over Tamir Erez’s home in Mefalsim near the Gaza Strip border, he kept asking himself: `Where is the Israeli army?`.
He led his children to flee from the town where they had lived peacefully for a long time.
`It will take a long time for us to recover from today,` Erez said.
On October 7, the armed movement Hamas suddenly launched about 5,000 missiles into Israeli cities, and at the same time organized many incursions deep into enemy territory by sea, road and air.
Hamas members used rockets, paragliders, motorbikes, pickup trucks and boats, in a coordinated attack that showed an unexpected level of sophistication.
This is the most serious armed escalation in many years in the persistent conflict between Israel and forces demanding Palestinian independence.
In fact, Israel’s failure to anticipate a lightning attack causing large casualties is considered an unprecedented failure for Israel’s famous intelligence agency.
Palestinians surround a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence (Photo: AP).
`It is clear that this was a carefully planned operation that did not happen overnight, and it is surprising that it was not detected by Israel or any of its security partners,` said Brian Katulis, Deputy
This incident also makes the world question what happened and how Israeli leaders face pressure to retaliate.
The element of surprise
Israeli security leaders have downplayed the threat from Hamas in recent months, as the group has avoided conflicts with its smaller Gaza ally, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
With the Iron Dome air defense system, Israel has previously stopped most of Hamas’s short-range missiles.
Israel’s recent intelligence assessment of Hamas is that the group has shifted its focus to efforts to stoke violence in the West Bank and that it is seeking to avoid launching major attacks from Gaza in order to avoid the type of military sanctions
In many respects, this surprise attack was a low-tech one, relying more on the element of surprise than advanced weapons.
`It’s unbelievable. Everyone talks about Hamas being quiet and stable. This whole concept of structure has broken down before our eyes in an extremely devastating way,` said Meir Elran, a researcher at
Israel and Hamas have been embroiled in a decades-long conflict in the Gaza Strip, which has been the epicenter of repeated conflicts since the Jewish state was established in 1948. Egypt holds
Israeli police evacuate a family from a location in southern Israel that was hit by rockets from the Gaza Strip (Photo: AP).
Thousands of Israeli settlers lived in the Gaza Strip until 2005, when Israel withdrew its soldiers and civilians and ceded control to the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas has used a network of tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border to traffic in weapons and supplies used to build thousands of missiles and a small number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that they have aimed at Israel.
No one has reliable statistics on the number of rockets that Hamas has in its possession.
Over the years, the Israeli military has carried out a series of airstrikes targeting Hamas tunnels deep under the Gaza-Israel border, successfully blocking the movement’s previous attempts to carry out attacks.
Mr. Schanzer described the October 7 attack as a notable military and intelligence failure for Israel.
Israelis across the country were shocked after this incident.
`I can’t believe that the army didn’t know about this, that there was no information about it, that they were completely unaware,` said citizen Adele Raemer, 68, from Kibbutz.
