Oct 9 (Reuters) – A careful campaign of deception ensured Israel survived as Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched its devastating offensive, challenging the Middle East’s most powerful army. A force was activated using bulldozers, hang gliders and motorcycles.
Saturday’s attack, the worst breach in Israel’s defenses since Arab forces launched a war in 1973, included a two-year sabotage by Hamas to keep its military plans under wraps and persuade Israel to withdraw. That he doesn’t want a fight.
Sources close to Hamas said that while Israel was convinced it was containing the embattled Hamas by providing economic incentives to Gaza activists, the group’s fighters were being trained and drilled. Which are often seen as clear.
The source provided many of the details of the attack and its build-up that Reuters has gathered. Three sources within Israel’s security establishment, who like the others asked not to be identified, also contributed to the account.
“Hamas has given Israel the impression that it is not ready for a fight,” a source close to Hamas said, describing plans for the most startling attack since the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago, when Egypt and Syria surprised Israel and forced it to fight for itself. survival
“Hamas has used an unprecedented intelligence tactic to mislead Israel over the past months, giving the public impression that it is unwilling to engage in combat or confrontation with Israel in preparation for this major operation.” “.
Israel has admitted it was deterred by an attack on the Jewish Sabbath and a religious holiday. Hamas fighters stormed Israeli towns, killing 700 Israelis and abducting dozens. Since then, Israel has killed more than 400 Palestinians in its reprisals against Gaza.
“This is our 9/11,” said Major Nir Dinar, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces. “They got us.”
“They surprised us and they came quickly from many places – both by air and land and sea.”
Osama Hamdan, Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, told Reuters the attack showed the Palestinians’ desire to achieve their goals “regardless of Israel’s military might and capabilities.”
‘They made a fuss’
Sources close to Hamas said that one of the most important elements of its preparations was the construction of a mock Israeli settlement in Gaza where it practiced military landings and trained to attack it.
“Israel must have seen them, but they believed that Hamas did not want to get into a confrontation.”
Meanwhile, Hamas has tried to convince Israel that it cares more about ensuring that workers in Gaza, which has more than two million residents, have access to jobs across the border. and has no interest in starting a new war.
“Hamas managed to create a complete picture that it is not ready for a military campaign against Israel,” the source said.
Since the 2021 war with Hamas, Israel has sought to provide basic economic stability in Gaza by offering incentives, including thousands of permits so Gazans can work in Israel or the West Bank, where construction, Salaries in agriculture or service jobs can be 10 Many times the salary level in Gaza.
“We believed that the fact that they were working and bringing money into Gaza would create a certain level of comfort. We were wrong,” said another Israeli army spokesman.
An Israeli security source admitted that Hamas tricked Israel’s security services. “They tricked us into thinking they wanted money,” the source said. “And all the time they were involved in drills/exercises until they rioted.”
As part of its sabotage over the past two years, Hamas has refrained from military action against Israel, even as another Gaza-based Islamist militant group, known as Islamic Jihad, has launched its own attacks or rocket attacks. Started the series.
No inkling.
Sources said the restraint shown by Hamas sparked public criticism from some supporters, which was intended to once again create the impression that Hamas had economic concerns and not a new war in mind.
In the West Bank, controlled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah group, there were those who mocked Hamas’ silence. In a statement by al-Fatah published in June 2022, the group accused Hamas leaders of fleeing to Arab capitals to live in “luxurious hotels and villas”, leaving their people in poverty in Gaza. .
Another Israeli security source said there was a period when Israel believed that the leader of the movement in Gaza, Yahya al-Sinwar, was busy managing Gaza instead of killing Jews. At the same time, Israel turned its attention away from Hamas as it pushed for a deal to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, he added.
Israel has long prided itself on its ability to infiltrate and monitor Islamist groups. As a result, sources close to Hamas said, a key part of the plan was to avoid leaks.
The sources added that many Hamas leaders were unaware of the plans and, during training, the 1,000 fighters deployed in the attack had no idea of the exact purpose of the exercises.
Hamas sources described the various elements and said that when the day came, the operation was divided into four parts.
The first move was a barrage of 3,000 rockets fired from Gaza that coincided with an incursion by fighters flying hang-gliders over the border, the sources said. Israel has previously said that the first 2,500 rockets were fired.
Once the fighters on the hang gliders were on the ground, they secured the area so an elite commando unit could attack the fortified electronic and cement wall that separates Gaza from the settlements and which Israel uses to prevent infiltration. was made for
The militants used explosives to breach the barricades and then sped off on motorbikes. Bulldozers widened the gap and more fighters entered in four-wheel drives, scenes described by witnesses.
‘Colossal failure’
A commando unit attacked the Israeli army’s southern Gaza headquarters and jammed its communications, preventing personnel from calling commanders or each other, the sources said.
Sources close to Hamas said the last part involved the transfer of hostages to Gaza, most of which were captured early in the offensive.
In one famous hostage-taking, fighters kidnapped partygoers fleeing a rave near the kibbutz of Reim, near Gaza. Social media footage showed dozens of people running across fields and onto the road as gunshots rang out.
“How can this party be so close (to Gaza)?” Israeli security sources said.
Israeli security sources say the Israeli army is at less than full strength in the south near Gaza as some troops are redeployed to the West Bank to protect Israeli settlers after an increase in violence between them and Palestinian militants. was
“They (Hamas) took advantage of that,” the source said.
Retired General Yaakov Amidor, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told reporters Sunday that the attack represented “a major failure of the intelligence system and military apparatus in the south.”
Amduror, chairman of the National Security Council from April 2011 to November 2013 and now a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, said some of Israel’s allies are saying Hamas has taken on “more responsibility.”
“We have foolishly started believing that it is true,” he said. “So, we made a mistake. We are not going to make that mistake again and we will destroy Hamas slowly but surely.”
Reporting by Samia Nakhol in Dubai and Jonathan Saul in London; Written by William Maclean; Edited by Edmund Blair
Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.