‘The Enemy Will Pay a Price It Never Imagined’: Israel Faces Shocking Hamas Offensive
Questions mount over Israeli preparedness as terrorists occupy communities and take hostages
Israelis woke up to a horrifying surprise offensive undertaken by Hamas, as thousands of rockets pierced a quiet Jewish Sabbath and holiday. At least 300 Israelis have been killed and over 1,500 injured. Tens of Israeli soldiers and civilians are being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
In Gaza, Palestinian health officials reported the death of at least 232 Palestinians in Israeli counterattacks, with over 1,600 people injured.
“We are in a war,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video released ahead of a special session of the security cabinet. “The enemy will pay a price it never imagined.”
As Israelis watched appalling scenes of terrorists parading through the streets of quiet Israeli towns shooting at innocent bystanders, the questions about what went wrong were quick to follow. The operation by Hamas, which included various methods of attacks, was not a spontaneous one and required meticulous preparation.
The offensive by Hamas came exactly 50 years to the day that Israel was surprised by a dual attack from Egypt and Syria in 1973, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The war scarred Israel and was considered its greatest military failure, in which the intelligence that indicated an imminent attack was brushed off by the political echelon.
After the war, a national inquiry committee investigated the events that led up to the war. Its finding changed the way the Israeli military and political echelons interacted, in addition to internal alterations to the role of military intelligence.
The Gaza Strip was captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Thousands of Israelis then settled in the territory, living amid over 2 million Palestinians. The late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to unilaterally evacuate the territory in 2005, leaving it to the control of the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas. Soon after, the internal Palestinian rivalry manifested in a historical split that divided Palestinians between the West Bank and Gaza. The rivalry between the Hamas terrorist organization and Abbas’ Fatah party peaked in 2007 when Hamas violently took over Gaza from the hands of the Fatah.
Throughout the years, since Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip, it has invested billions of US and Israeli dollars in fortifying its border with the hostile territory. But in a few short minutes, it was perforated by vehicles with armed terrorists on them, terrorists who then entered the homes of civilians, ransacking and shooting indiscriminately.
For hours, Israeli communities were taken over by terrorists. Harrowing calls of citizens to reporters begged the army to come to their rescue. The military response was slow, and the death toll kept climbing, as horrific testimonies continued to emerge. It took painstaking hours until the military acknowledged it had lost control of communities adjacent to the Gaza border. Into the nighttime, gunfights between security forces and terrorists were still being held in cities in which terrorists were holed up, holding civilians hostage.
Amateur footage on social media showed Israeli hostages being taken with partial clothing in the streets of Gaza and of bodies being trampled.
“We cannot ignore the fact that Israel was very surprised by this offensive,” said Dr. Shay Har-Zvi, head of the international and Middle Eastern Arenas at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at Reichman University. “It is too soon to determine where the failure was operative or at the intelligence level. What we are seeing is the wide damage to Israel’s deterrence.”
Many Israelis compared the situation to the events of the 1973 war, some saying the events were even worse.
This is an unprecedented operational and intelligence failure at an unimaginable level
“This is an unprecedented operational and intelligence failure at an unimaginable level,” said Dr. Eran Lerman, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. “This is worse than the Yom Kippur War; not since 1948 [in Israel’s War of Independence] have Israeli villages been held by the enemy.”
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been running high in recent months and just in recent days in the Gaza Strip.
“The border was breached by vehicles that should have been easily destroyed with the means at the disposal of the military,” Lerman told The Media Line, who assessed the Israeli Southern Command headquarters was likely neutralized with an offensive on its base as other Palestinian fighters continued to infiltrate the border. “This is a fundamental failure that will need to be investigated thoroughly, at the very least at the level that was investigated after the 1973 war.”
Israel’s retaliation has yet to be seen. Although dozens of airstrikes by the air force have already been conducted against targets in the Gaza Strip, the government threatened a wider response. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was quoted in the media as saying Gaza would be deterred for 50 years to come.
Israel will have to make Hamas pay the heaviest price ever because this is not just about Hamas. The whole region is looking at this.
“Israel will have to make Hamas pay the heaviest price ever because this is not just about Hamas. The whole region is looking at this, Israel’s national security depends on its response now and Israel’s image and deterrence are at stake,” Har-Zvi told The Media Line. “Without a major Israeli response, that may include toppling the Hamas regime, such events could repeat themselves.”
“This is a game-changing event that has not been seen in decades,” Har-Zvi added. “We are in for weeks of fighting.”
The Israeli security cabinet convened for hours at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv. The military will likely continue its airstrikes while preparing for a ground offensive which would likely increase the death toll on both sides.
Israel and Hamas have fought several wars since the terrorist organization took over the Gaza Strip in 2007.
“This cannot end with anything less than the obliteration of the Hamas organization, whatever the price,” said Lerman. “The army was caught unprepared and is now trying to plan its response, taking into account the people who are being held captive.”
Once the fighting ends, there will be plenty of blame to go around. For now, Israelis are trying to set aside the criticism as they deal with the violence and the soaring death toll.
“The political echelon is just as responsible as the military echelon, for being mistakenly unprepared, with distorted priorities and preparedness that does not match the severity of the incident,” said Lerman.
