JERUSALEM — Without warning on Saturday, Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers attacked Israel by air, land and sea. Millions of Israelis in the country’s south awoke to the searing sound of incoming rockets and the inevitable thud of impact. Air raid sirens wailed as far north as Tel Aviv. Israel’s anti-rocket interceptors thundered in Jerusalem.
In an unprecedented and escalated situation, Hamas fighters who were armed destroyed sections of Israel’s heavily fortified separation fence and entered Israeli communities along the Gaza border. This caused fear among residents and led to exchanges of gunfire with Israeli soldiers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist supporters were urgently trying to react to the swiftly evolving circumstances. In a mere nine-hour span, approximately 40 Israelis and nearly 200 Palestinians were officially reported as deceased, and these figures are anticipated to increase.
Here are some key takeaways from the multi-pronged attack that has suddenly plunged Israel into war.
On Saturday morning, Israelis were taken aback, as it reminded them of the shock experienced during the 1973 Mideast war. This war occurred nearly 50 years ago on the same day, when an unexpected assault by Egypt and Syria on a Jewish holiday resulted in a catastrophic outcome for the ill-equipped Israeli military.
At that time, just like today, Israelis believed that their intelligence agencies would be capable of warning the military about any significant attack or invasion with sufficient time. This significant failure continues to haunt the reputation of former Prime Minister Golda Meir and played a role in the decline of the long-standing dominance of the Labor Party.
PHOTOS: ‘We are at war’: 5 things to know about the Hamas militant group’s unprecedented attack on Israel
Now, the question of how the militants were able to stage such a huge and coordinated attack – which has already killed more Israelis than any single assault since the second Palestinian uprising two decades ago – without triggering Israeli intelligence concerns has already presented a major challenge to Netanyahu’s ultranationalist government.
The government’s backers had anticipated that Netanyahu and influential ministers known for their anti-Arab statements, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, would adopt an aggressive approach towards the Palestinians and react more assertively to the threats posed by militants in Gaza.
Netanyahu faces criticism from political analysts for the failure, and as the number of casualties increases, he runs the risk of losing control over both his government and the nation.
Hamas asserted that its combatants had captured multiple Israelis in the area, sharing disturbing videos of militants dragging injured soldiers along the ground and standing near lifeless bodies, some of whom were partially dressed. The group also claimed that high-ranking Israeli military officials were among those held captive.
The videos could not immediately be verified but matched geographic features of the area. Fears that Israelis had been kidnapped evoked the 2006 capture of soldier Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas-linked militants seized in a cross-border raid. Hamas held Shalit for five years until he was exchanged for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Hamas carried out a bold and unprecedented act by sending paragliders into Israel, according to the Israeli military. This incident reminded many of a notorious attack in the late 1980s, where Palestinian militants used hang-gliders to cross from Lebanon into northern Israel and fatally harmed six Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli military acknowledged with delay that individuals from both the military and civilian sectors were held captive in Gaza, but declined to disclose additional information.
Hamas representatives mentioned ongoing sources of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, such as the disagreement over the significant Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. This site holds great religious importance for both Muslims and Jews and continues to be a focal point of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous clashes over the area, also known as the Temple Mount to Jews, have resulted in violence, including the recent 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2021.
Israeli religious nationalists, including National Security Minister Ben-Gvir, have been making more frequent visits to the compound in recent years. During the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot last week, a large number of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli activists visited the site. This action drew criticism from Hamas, who accused the Jews of praying there in violation of the agreed-upon status quo.
Hamas has also mentioned the growth of Jewish settlements on territories that Palestinians consider as part of their future state, as well as Ben-Gvir’s attempts to strengthen limitations on Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
In recent times, there has been an increase in tensions due to the occurrence of violent protests by Palestinians near the Gaza border. Hamas has been engaging in negotiations with Qatar, Egypt, and the United Nations, advocating for Israeli compromises that could potentially alleviate the 17-year blockade on the enclave. This action aims to address the deteriorating financial crisis and mitigate the growing public dissatisfaction with Hamas’ governance.
Some political analysts have linked Hamas’ attack to ongoing U.S.-brokered talks on normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. So far, reports of possible concessions to Palestinians in the negotiations have involved Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, not Gaza.
Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, informed the AP that security, stability, or calm cannot be attained through normalization, as we have consistently stated.
Israel is currently experiencing a challenging period as it confronts widespread protests against Netanyahu’s plan to diminish the authority of the Supreme Court. This unrest coincides with the ongoing corruption trial against him.
The movement of protesters, who claim that Netanyahu is attempting to seize power, has caused deep divisions within Israeli society and created chaos within the Israeli military. Many reservists have expressed their intention to refuse to volunteer for duty as a form of protest against the judicial reforms.
Reservists are the backbone of the country’s army, and protests within the army ranks have raised concerns about the military’s cohesion, operational readiness and power of deterrence as it confronts threats on multiple fronts. Netanyahu on Saturday called up “an extensive mobilization of reserve forces.”
Israel and Hamas have engaged in four conflicts and have had multiple instances of exchanging gunfire since Hamas took control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Previous conflicts have been temporarily halted by cease-fires, although they have always been unstable.
Each agreement in the past has offered a period of calm, but the deeper, underlying issues of the conflict are rarely addressed and set the stage for the next round of airstrikes and rockets.
Due to its heightened influence in this stage, Hamas is expected to exert more pressure to obtain favorable outcomes on significant matters, such as the alleviation of the blockade and the liberation of prisoners detained by Israel.
