Israeli security services were overwhelmed by the timing, scale and modus operandi of the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Saturday. A passivity which could partly be due to the political-institutional crisis that the country led by Benjamin Netanyahu is going through.
Up to 5,000 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, hundreds of commandos crossing the border between the Palestinian enclave and Israel, Israeli villages occupied and civilians taken hostage by the dozens… The brigades’ lightning offensive Ezzedine al-Qassam, the armed wing of Hamas, surprised an entire country on Saturday October 7, and already appears to be one of the most resounding security failures in Israeli history.
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At the heart of a day of chaos, the responsibility of the Israeli authorities was quickly pointed out by observers and the country’s press. “Israel was humiliated and defeated today. Even if the Gaza Strip was destroyed (…), this will not compensate[it] not the most serious security failure since the Yom Kippur War”writes editorialist Yossi Verter, columnist for the left-wing newspaper Haaretz.
Israel surprised by the timing and scale of the attack
The Israeli authorities were surprised by the Hamas attack, which occurred in the early morning, on a Shabbat day. A highly symbolic incursion, fifty years and one day after the start of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. “Usually, it is Israel which dictates the tempo, here it is Hamas which chose the place, the time and the modus operandi”, analysis from franceinfo David Khalfa, co-director of the North Africa and Middle East Observatory at the Jean-Jaurès foundation. “This country has, however, been in a state of war and permanent alert since its creation, and intelligence is its major addition,” he recalls.
Beyond the timing, in an effect of surprise that the Israeli authorities had not anticipated according to observers, the attack by terrorists from the Palestinian Islamist movement was massive. “VSIt was the level of preparation that surprised [les autorités]. The state of stupor Israel responds to the scale and sophistication of Hamas commandos”analysis from franceinfo David Rigoulet-Roze, associate researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris) and specialist in the Middle East.
Amélie Ferey, cresearcher at the security studies center of the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), highlights the difficulty for the Israeli authorities “to imagine something that never happened” on its soil, especially since a truce had been in force for several months between Hamas and Israel.
“Hamas had played appeasement and Israel saw the movement as a threat through its rocket fire. But it had the idea that its territory was inviolable.”
Amélie Ferey, researcher at the Ifri security studies centerat franceinfo
“I have never seen the border crossed in this way. Usually, even if a person from Gaza approaches the border, they are intercepted and neutralized before even doing anything,” notes to NBC News David M. Friedman, United States ambassador to Israel under President Trump, from 2017 to 2021. The attack has “completely undermined the defensive operational design on the border of the Gaza Strip”explains the Israeli newspaper Haaretzrecalling that the Hebrew State is investing “billions of shekels [la monnaie nationale de l’Etat d’Israël] for surveillance purposes” around the Palestinian enclave, whose border is guarded by soldiers and cutting-edge technological means.
The security of the border neglected by Israel?
Images of Palestinian commandos crossing the border on motorcycles, weapons in hand, have made the rounds on social networks and media around the world, raising the question of securing the land border. Several observers explained that part of the unit called the “Gaza division”, usually stationed at the border, had been sent to the other side of the country, to the occupied West Bank.faced with an upsurge in violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
SATURDAY, “three quarters of Israeli troops were in the occupied West Bank due to the increase in Palestinian attacks for more than a year”, thus note Marius Schattner, essayist, and Frédérique Schillo, historian, in a column published in The world. A thesis confirmed by journalist Ben Caspitwho mentioned this deployment of troops in the West Bank. “There is a multiplication of fronts [en Israël] and Hamas did not seem to be the subject of priority attention”, says researcher Amélie Ferey.
The responsibility of the Israeli general staff and the intelligence services is explicitly mentioned. In their column, Marius Schattner and Frédérique Schillo note that the intelligence services and the IDF [l’armée de défense d’Israël] were not able “to analyze weak signals or predict the attack that was looming under the veil of military maneuvers.”
Israel apparently could not count on the intelligence capacity of the United States, its historic ally, to prevent this attack. According to a senior American military official cited by CNN, Washington had not communicated any specific threats to Israel. However, other American officials point out, the United States would have immediately warned its ally if it had known of an upcoming attack.
Netanyahu’s justice reform singled out
While Benjamin Netanyahu said he wanted to use “all the power” of the army to avenge “a dark day”, many observers recalled that the policy of the Israeli Prime Minister was perhaps not unrelated to this security failure. The Likud leader is at the head of a country plunged into an unprecedented political-institutional crisis. The controversial justice reform has sparked weekly protests and pushed army reservists to go on strike.
For researcher Amélie Ferey, this vulnerability could be seen by Hamas as the image of a “divided society”, which he could have benefited from. “For months, military officials have warned that efforts by Netanyahu’s far-right government to weaken the justice system were undermining Israel’s ability to defend itself.”underlines the Washington Post.
While waiting to analyze its military failures, Israel has already launched the response and recalled the reservists. Benjamin Netanyahu has already announced that the Israelis are “embarked in a long and difficult war”. “The immediate reflex is to rally behind the flag”, explains David Khalfa. The time for settling scores will wait, but for how long?