Unprecedented Hamas assault surprised Israel, ‘this is our 9/11’

by Samia Nakhoul and Jonathan Saul

Oct 9 (Reuters) – Israel was caught off guard by the unprecedented, carefully planned and concealed offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas, which opened the biggest breach in Israeli defenses since the surprise military offensive jointly led by Syria and Egypt in 1973.

While Israel thought it had calmed the situation in the Gaza Strip by offering economic incentives to workers, Hamas fighters trained and trained, often in full view, a source close to the movement said.

This source provided extensive details about the attack and its preparation, which was pieced together by Reuters.

Three sources within the Israeli security services, who asked not to be identified, also contributed to this report.

“Hamas has given Israel the impression that it is not ready to fight,” the source close to the movement said, describing plans for the most unexpected attack since the Yom Kippur War. just 50 years old.

“Hamas has used unprecedented intelligence tactics to deceive Israel over the past few months, publicly giving the impression that it is not prepared to fight or confront Israel while preparing for this major operation. stature,” the source said.

Israel admits it was caught off guard by an attack that coincided with the Jewish Shabbat and the religious holiday of Sukkot.

Hamas fighters stormed Israeli towns, killing more than 800 Israelis, according to the latest toll reported Monday by the Israeli press.

According to the latest report provided by the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 560 Palestinians have died since Saturday and 2,900 have been injured during the Israeli response.

“This is our 9/11,” said Maj. Nir Dinar, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces.

“They got us,” he said.

“They surprised us and arrived quickly from several places, both by air and by land and sea.”

This attack, believes Osama Hamdan, representative of Hamas, shows that the Palestinians have the will to achieve their objectives “whatever the power and military capabilities of Israel”.

“WE WERE WRONG”

One of the most striking elements of these preparations was the construction by the Palestinian Islamist movement of a fake Israeli colony in Gaza, where fighters trained in military landing and storming, said the source close to Hamas, adding that they had even recorded videos of these operations.

“Israel certainly saw them, but was convinced that Hamas did not want to engage in a confrontation,” the source said.

Hamas has meanwhile sought to convince Israel that it cares more about ensuring that workers in Gaza, a narrow strip of land bordering the Mediterranean where more than two million people live, have access to jobs. across the border and that he had no interest in starting a new war.

“Hamas managed to give the impression that it was not ready to embark on a military adventure against Israel,” the source commented.

Since the ten-day war between the two camps in 2021, Israel has worked to ensure a minimum level of economic stability in Gaza by offering incentives, including thousands of permits allowing Gazans to work in Israel or in West Bank, where salaries in the construction, agriculture or service sectors can be ten times higher.

“We thought that the fact that they were coming to work and bringing money to Gaza would create a certain level of calm. We were wrong,” said another Israeli army spokesperson.

An Israeli security source admitted that Israeli security services had been duped by Hamas.

“They made us believe they wanted money,” the source said. “And all the while they were involved in drills until they went on a rampage.”

Over the past two years, Hamas has refrained from carrying out military operations against Israel, even as another Gaza-based Islamist armed group, Islamic Jihad, launched its own assaults against the Jewish state.

AVOID LEAKS

The restraint shown by Hamas had drawn public criticism from some of its supporters, who once again sought to give the impression that the movement was focused on economic concerns rather than a new war, the source said.

The group has particularly come under criticism in the West Bank, under the control of the Palestinian Authority, for its apparent inaction.

In a statement released in June 2022, Fatah, the party of President Mahmoud Abbas, accused Hamas leaders of fleeing to Arab capitals to live in “luxurious hotels and villas”, leaving their people in poverty in Gaza.

At one time, Israel believed that Hamas leader in Gaza, Yehia al Sinwar, was more concerned with running the enclave than “killing Jews”, another Israeli security source said.

At the same time, Israel has diverted its attention from Hamas by pushing for a deal to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, he added.

While Israel has long prided itself on its ability to infiltrate and monitor Islamist groups, a crucial part of Hamas’s plan was to prevent leaks, the source close to the Palestinian group said.

Many of the movement’s leaders were unaware of the plans, and during training, the 1,000 fighters deployed for the assault had no idea of ​​the exact objective of the exercises, she added.

When the day came, the operation was divided into four parts.

The first stage consisted of a barrage of 3,000 rockets fired from Gaza, which coincided with incursions by fighters flying hang gliders, or motorized paragliders, over the border, the source said.

Israel previously said 2,500 rockets were fired initially.

Once the hang-glider fighters landed, they secured the terrain so that an elite commando force could storm the Israeli-built fortified wall.

The fighters used explosives to break through the barriers and then drove through them on motorbikes. Bulldozers widened the breaches and other fighters entered in 4x4s, scenes described by witnesses.

HUGE FAILURE

A commando attacked the Israeli army headquarters in the southern Gaza Strip and jammed communications, preventing personnel from calling commanders or contacting each other.

The final part of the operation involved transferring hostages to Gaza, which was mostly accomplished at the start of the attack, the source concluded.

Fighters took hostage people attending a rave near Kibbutz Re’im, near Gaza. Images posted on social media show dozens of people running through fields and along a road, as gunshots are heard.

Israeli troops were not at full strength in the south as soldiers were redeployed to the West Bank to protect Israeli settlers following an outbreak of violence.

“They (Hamas) exploited this situation,” the Israeli security source said.

According to Dennis Ross, a former Mideast negotiator who now works at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Israel has been distracted by violence in the West Bank, leading to a “thin and insufficiently strong presence.” prepared in the south.

“Hamas has probably succeeded beyond its expectations. It will now have to face an Israel determined to decimate it,” he said.

Retired Gen. Yaakov Amidror, former national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told reporters on Sunday that the assault represented “a huge failure of the intelligence system and the military apparatus in the south.”

Some of Israel’s allies said Hamas had acquired “more responsibility.”

“We stupidly started to believe it was true,” added Yaakov Amidror. “So we made a mistake. We will not make this mistake again and we will destroy Hamas, slowly but surely.”

(Reporting by Samia Nakhoul in Dubai and Jonathan Saul in London; with contributions from Ali Sawafta in the West Bank and Matt Spetalnick in Washington, writing by William Maclean; French version Diana Mandiá, editing by Kate Entringer)