Israel’s inability to prepare for a daring Hamas strike was a “colossal intelligence failure,” according to experts

Media sources and analysts agree that the “colossal failure” of the nation’s intelligence services led to the unexpected and unprecedented multifront offensive by the terrorist organization Hamas in southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.

According to the Israeli military, Hamas militants, who control the Gaza Strip, launched more than 3,000 rockets into Israel on Saturday morning. Hamas fighters also entered southern Israel via land, sea, and air while using paragliders, and they even captured a number of Israeli soldiers close to the border.

Israel has experienced its worst day in at least 50 years with at least 350 Israelis, including soldiers, killed and more than 1,900 wounded. Israel’s strike on the Gaza Strip has resulted in roughly 300 fatalities and 1,500 injuries, according to media sources from Sunday.

Israel has traditionally taken great pride in its intelligence institutions, particularly Mossad, the foreign intelligence service, and Shin Bet, the internal division. But on Sukkot, a significant Jewish holiday, more than 5,000 missiles were launched while dozens of Hamas militants breached the strongly defended border in multiple spots by air, land, and water.

All of this took place in spite of Israel possessing one of the most powerful armies in the neighborhood, security cameras at the guarded border, agents from Shin Bet and Mossad on the ground, cutting-edge thermal imaging/motion sensors, and even advanced border fence.

Some observers believe that Israel has disregarded its own neighborhood as a result of its intense focus on Iran’s adversary and attempts to thwart the Islamic Republic’s nuclear development.

In a security cabinet meeting conducted late on Saturday, Israeli ministers demanded that the military provide explanations for the intelligence failure.

Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff, was criticized by ministers for allegedly not finding the time to inform them on Saturday. According to the news site, “some questioned whether he had wanted to avoid their difficult questions about the failure of the military intelligence to detect the Hamas plan.”

“Every Israeli wants to know how this failure could have happened,” Ofir Akunis, the minister of science and technology, stated. Why aren’t the Chief of Staff and Director of Intelligence here right now? We need more details.

He urged that the ministers get briefings three times every day.

In a report published in the prestigious newspaper Jerusalem Post, it was stated that “Gaza was on the back burner in terms of a sense of security threats because Iran-backed proxies have been increasing threats elsewhere” and provided details on the events that took place over the previous three to four years in the region that caused “Hamas in Gaza appeared isolated, unable to even get more funds from the usual sources, such as Qatar.”

Hamas seemed to promote an antiquated philosophy of living in the past as Israeli normalization accords grew in the area. It was noted that this seems to have given individuals a false feeling of security.

Israel recently agreed to a cease-fire with Hamas, defying repeated warnings after each escalation that a truce would only aid Hamas and other Islamic organizations in regaining strength for the next round. Some experts claimed that warnings were ignored due to domestic political constraints.

Hebrew media started quoting anonymous officials criticizing the political and military echelons for the fact that Israel, preoccupied with internal argument, had once again been caught off guard, according to a report in Times of Israel. “Even as Israel’s political chiefs began to convene in emergency consultations, with the full extent of the infiltration and its consequences still unfolding,” the report stated.

“The IDF’s assumption, in recent years, was that Hamas was deterred from carrying out major attacks in Israel—fearing the potency of Israel’s response, and wary of plunging Gaza into renewed devastation,” it added, noting out that “all too evidently, that assumption was unfounded.”

Former Israeli Navy commander Eli Maron said to a news presenter, “Israel as a whole is asking itself: Where is the IDF, where is the police, where is the security? It’s a monumental disaster; the hierarchies have just fallen flat, with serious repercussions.

The strike brought to mind the Yom Kippur War, another incident defined by “intelligence failure,” in which the adversary started hostilities, according to Amos Yadlin, a former IDF intelligence head, who was cited by the Times of Israel.

For many Israelis, Saturday’s tragic invasion brought back sad memories of the war in October 1973—pretty almost exactly 50 years ago—when Israel’s foes had attacked on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism.

The IDF, the most powerful force in the Middle East and one of the most regarded in the world, was utterly caught off guard by the Hamas assault on Israel on Saturday, according to YNetNews.

In a report, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) stated: “With the combined efforts of Shin Bet, Israeli domestic intelligence, Mossad, its external spy agency, and all the assets of the Israel Defence Forces, it is frankly astounding that nobody saw this coming.”

The article listed Israel’s capabilities, including its informants’ network, drone attack strikes, and precision assassinations, and concluded, “Or if they did, they failed to act on it,” before adding, “To prepare for and carry out such a coordinated, complex attack involving the stockpiling and firing of thousands of rockets, right under the noses of the Israelis, must have taken extraordinary levels of operational security by Hamas.”

Some analysts are also attributing it to the divisions that exist inside Israel due to the government’s proposal to restructure the legal system, which has sparked widespread demands for a boycott and weakened political support.

How did such a large group of people plan such a large operation without being discovered by the Israeli side when Israeli defense officials practically boasted about how they infiltrated all Palestinian communications in Gaza and the West Bank even if they were using encrypted Apps?, asked CNN’s intelligence and counterterrorism analyst Kimberly Dozier in response to the Hamas strategy.

She said that the fact that the Palestinians and Hamas were able to amass all of these weapons and carry out several significant strikes was “an incredible message on their part.”

Although it is unclear whether this was done in preparation for a potential conflict with Iran or a likely Palestinian assault, the Israeli government officials did seem worried about Israeli readiness in a war-like scenario and went about assessing shelter homes around the nation.