Israel’s intelligence and security agencies have come under fire for failing to foresee the massive strike launched on Saturday by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
According to some estimates, a thousand militants carried out a historically large-scale strike within Israel, shooting dead civilians and military objectives.
At least 700 Israelis were murdered and more than 2,100 were injured, according to Israeli media. Israel’s response was to carry out airstrikes on Gaza Strip targets. Over 2,300 Palestinians have been hurt, and over 400 have died.
With the battle still going on, the death toll probably will increase.
“No national intelligence agency is omniscient or flawless, but this is just a colossal failure,” said Bruce Hoffman, a senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security at the Council on Foreign Relations. “It’s just astonishing that this could occur.”
Israel has long taken pleasure in its high-tech wall and border fence that it has built underground close to Gaza. However, videos from the area show that on Saturday, Hamas gunmen were able to use explosives and large equipment to breach the border fence in at least one location. Additionally, militants utilized paragliders to reach twenty spots in Israel and carried out an amphibious operation in the Mediterranean Sea.
Thousands of rockets were also launched by the extremist group, surprising Israel’s renowned intelligence services and monitoring network. Israel is thought to have many informants in Gaza who can listen in on almost any phone call.
“We were surprised this morning. About failures, I prefer not to talk at this point right now. We’re in war. We’re fighting,” Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, said Saturday on CNN.
“They’ve been planning this for a long time,” former Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata told Reuters. “Obviously this is a very coordinated attack, and unfortunately they were able to surprise us tactically and cause devastating damage.”
