How did Hamas attackers enter Israel, whose missiles cannot even harm it?
Today is 7 October, a day that Israel can never forget. A year ago on this day, Hamas inflicted the biggest wound on Israel. It is considered one of the deadliest attacks in Israel's history. Hamas first fired thousands of rockets in southern Israel and then its fighters crossed the border using parachutes and entered the Israeli border.
According to Israel, about 1200 Israelis died in this attack, while Hamas fighters took 251 people hostage. Israel alleges that Hamas fighters brutalized women and children, although recently Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya has denied these allegations in an interview. He has said that Hamas fighters were sent with clear instructions not to harm women and children in any way, our target was Israeli soldiers.
How did Hamas break through Israel's security shield?
It is claimed that Israel had no expectation of any such attack from Hamas, with both domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet and foreign intelligence agency Mossad unaware of Hamas's attack plans.
Hamas fired around 2000 rockets on Israel on 7 October, this attack happened around 7 am. Nova Music Festival was going on in Kibbutz Re'em city near the Israel-Palestine border, and a large number of Israelis had gathered to enjoy it. But this sudden attack by Hamas created chaos. Meanwhile, Hamas fighters entered the Israeli border via parachute and bike and opened indiscriminate firing. It is claimed that around 1200 people died in this attack.
Israel had received a warning before the attack!
This is considered the biggest failure of Israeli intelligence agencies, but such a mistake seems completely unexpected from agencies like Shin Bet and Mossad who are experts in finding the enemy from the sky to the ground. Although after the Hamas attack, many reports claimed that Israel was already alerted about the Hamas attack, Israel did not take these warnings seriously.
CIA had expressed apprehension of the Hamas attack
About a week after the Hamas attack, a CNN report claimed that US intelligence agencies had warned Israel about this threat not once but twice. For the first time on September 28, Israel was told that Hamas was preparing a cross-border rocket attack, while for the second time on October 5, the CIA alerted Israel about the possibility of a Hamas attack.
Apart from this, on October 6, just a day before the attack, US officials shared some reports with Israel which were pointing towards some unusual activities of Hamas. It is believed that Israel took all these warnings and alerts lightly or due to the over-confidence of its intelligence agencies, this attack could not be prevented. However, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu called these reports baseless and said that no country had warned him about the danger of attack.
Egypt had warned 3 days before the attack.
Michael McCall, head of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, also claimed that Egypt had warned Israel just 3 days before Hamas' violence and attack. Egypt shares its border with both the Gaza Strip and Israel. Therefore, it can easily detect any conspiracy by Hamas. At the same time, an Egyptian intelligence officer, while talking to news agency AP, claimed that Egypt had repeatedly warned Israel that a big conspiracy was being hatched in Gaza.
Did Israel take the warning lightly?
The intelligence official said, 'We had warned that an explosive situation was coming and all this was going to happen very soon and very big. But they took our warning lightly.' The Cairo official said that Israel underestimated the threat from Gaza and focused all its attention on the West Bank.
What is the dispute between Hamas and Israel?
In fact, Gaza has been ruled by Hamas since 2007. Hamas won a landslide victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections held in 2006. With the return of Hamas rule in Gaza, tensions between Israel and Gaza increased. Israel started increasing its control and vigilance around this area and started controlling the movement of goods and people on Gaza's airspace and sea coast. Due to this, there was a shortage of basic necessities including food and water in Gaza.
Apart from this, in the past years, Israel has been accused of atrocities against Palestinians in the West Bank (which is a Palestinian territory and is occupied by Israel). Not only this, the Israeli police were seen repeatedly raiding the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem and misbehaving with the Namazis, due to which the anger among the Palestinian people increased. Israel is accused of trying to change the 'status quo' of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.
On the other hand, Hamas, which is a Palestinian extremist group, considers Israel an occupier and its enemy. It claims that it is fighting for a free Palestine. According to Hamas, the attack on Israel is in response to the atrocities that Palestinians have been suffering for decades.