Though Israel is no stranger to terrorist attacks, the Hamas’ assault on October 7 was unprecedented – not least because of the lack of warning. The attack came from air, sea and land. Besides firing rockets at many cities, the attackers shot at civilians and took hostages including Israeli soldiers. Israel’s military found itself caught off guard, despite decades in which the country became a technology powerhouse that boasts one of the world’s most impressive armed forces and a premier intelligence agency. The day turned into one of the most terrifying attacks Israel has known in the 75 years of its existence. Assailants from Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the impoverished and densely populated Gaza Strip, had by nightfall killed hundreds of people and wounded hundreds more.
Israel has not seen this kind of infiltration of military bases, towns and kibbutzim since town-by-town fighting in the 1948 war of independence. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has repeatedly dodged questions about whether the October 7 events constitute an intelligence failure. While the images of several thousand rockets sectoring the sky has become familiar over the years during the periodic upticks in fighting around Gaza, the footage of Hamas assault teams moving through the streets in communities such as Sderot, blowing the gates of a kibbutz and firing on passing cars and pedestrians, showed scenes not witnessed by most Israelis, for whom short-lived attacks in cities have become a fact of life.
Israel’s surveillance technology industry, as evidenced by the Pegasus spyware scandal, is among the most advanced in the world. Despite all of this, Hamas’ preparations were missed. It is true that Hamas, while always determined and capable of long-term planning, has become much more skilful at adapting to the military challenges it faces, often expending large amounts of effort in its planning and in its identification of Israeli vulnerabilities, a fact very well-known to Israel’s defence forces. Military analysts have already been quick to suggest that Hamas is likely to have employed significant deception as well as the shock of attacks from multiple domains – including rocket and infiltration – to create maximum chaos.
Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, it has spent billions of dollars securing the border from attacks. That included striking at any weapons fired from inside Gaza into Israel and stopping terrorists from trying to cross the border from air or underground using tunnels. To stop rocket attacks, Israel has used the Iron Dome, an effective rocket defense system developed with help from the US. Whether by coincidence or design, the attacks came the day after the 50-year anniversary of another unforeseen conflict, when a coalition of Arab states launched a surprise attack against Israel on Yom Kippur, in 1973. But one thing is clear – there was a colossal intelligence failure by the Israelis.
