• Things To Know about The Unprecedented Attack On Israel By The Palestinian Group Hamas. Facts: Israel – Hamas conflict.
• “We Are At War” Israel vs Hamas.
Israel was suddenly assaulted by the Islamist Hamas authorities of Gaza on Saturday. The piercing sound of approaching rockets and the inevitable thud of impact awakened up millions of Israelis in the southern part of the country. As far north as Tel Aviv, air raid sirens were audible. Jerusalem was thundered by Israel’s anti-rocket interceptors.
And in an unprecedented escalation, armed Hamas fighters stormed into Israeli settlements along the Gaza border, terrorising locals, and exchanged fire with Israeli soldiers. They also demolished portions of Israel’s heavily guarded separation fence.
The far-right friends of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were scurrying to react to the quickly shifting events. Nearly 200 Palestinians and 40 Israelis had been declared dead in just eighteen hours, and more deaths are certain.
Here are a few significant facts to be learned from the multifaceted assault that has unexpectedly dragged Israel into a war.
Facts: Israel – Hamas conflict.
CAUGHT UNAWARE: ISRAEL
On Simchat Torah, one of the happiest days of the Jewish calendar, Israelis experienced shock similar to that of the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1973. A full-scale Egyptian-Syrian attack on a Jewish festival that occurred practically 50 years earlier to the day soon devolved into a catastrophe for an unprepared Israeli military.
Israelis believed that their intelligence services would be able to inform the army of any significant attack or invasion far in advance, as they do now. That catastrophic failure contributed to the lengthy rule of the once-dominant Labour Party and still haunts the legacy of former prime minister Golda Meir.
The question of how the militants pulled off such a massive and well-coordinated attack, which has already claimed more Israeli lives than any other assault since the second Palestinian uprising 20 years ago, without raising suspicions from Israeli intelligence has already posed a significant problem for Netanyahu’s ultranationalist government.
Supporters of the government had anticipated that Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and other strong, hard-line ministers with a history of using anti-Arab language would adopt a particularly aggressive position towards the Palestinians and more strongly confront threats from militants in Gaza.
As political commentators criticise Netanyahu for the failure and the number of fatalities rises, Netanyahu runs the risk of losing control of his government and the entire nation.
ANONYMOUS INFILTRATION
In graphic footage showing militants kneeling over dead bodies while some of them are in their pants and dragging bloodied troops across the ground, Hamas claimed that its members had kidnapped numerous Israelis in the area. Senior Israeli military officers were reportedly held captive, according to the report.
Although the films could not be readily authenticated, they matched local geographic details. Fears of Israelis being abducted brought to mind the 2006 kidnapping of soldier Gilad Shalit by militants with Hamas ties during a cross-border incursion. Shalit was detained by Hamas for five years before Israel released over 1,000 Palestinian captives in return for him.
A RISKY BETCHER BY HAMAS
Disputes over the sensitive Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which is important to both Muslims and Jews and remains at the emotional centre of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, were mentioned by Hamas officials as long-simmering sources of animosity between Israel and the Palestinians. Violence has already broken out between rival claims to the location, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, including a brutal 11-day conflict in 2021 between Israel and Hamas.
Israeli religious nationalists have increased their visits to the property in recent years, including National Security Minister Ben-Gvir.
Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli activists visited the location last week for the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, which prompted outrage from Hamas and claims that Jews were worshipping there in violation of quo agreement.
In addition, Ben-Gvir’s efforts to impose more limitations on Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails were mentioned in remarks by Hamas, as were the growth of Jewish settlers on land that the Palestinians claim for a future state.With violent Palestinian protests around the Gaza border, tensions have recently risen. Hamas has pushed for Israeli concessions in talks with Qatar, Egypt, and the UN that could ease the enclave’s 17-year siege and assist stop a financial crisis that is becoming worse and is escalating public opposition of the group’s authority.
Some political analysts have connected the Hamas assault to the current U.S.-mediated negotiations on improving ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The Palestinians mentioned in reports of potential concessions to them in the negotiations thus far have been those living in the occupied West Bank, not Gaza.According to senior Hamas official Bassem Naim, “We have always said that normalisation will not achieve security, stability, or calm.”
A Crisis In Israel
The outbreak of violence occurs while Israel is dealing with the largest demonstrations in its history as a result of Netanyahu’s plan to undermine the Supreme Court while he is on trial for corruption.
Israeli society has been sharply divided by the protest movement, which accuses Netanyahu of attempting to consolidate power, and unrest has broken out within the Israeli military. In opposition to the judicial reform, hundreds of reservists have threatened to cease volunteering to report for service.
The nation’s army is made up primarily of reservists, and unrest within the army ranks has sparked worries about the military’s cohesion, operational readiness, and deterrent effectiveness as it battles challenges on numerous fronts.
On Saturday, Netanyahu ordered “an extensive mobilisation of reserve forces.”
A DANGEROUS CIRCLE
Since the Islamic terrorist group took over Gaza from Palestinian Authority-aligned forces in 2007, Israel and Hamas have engaged in four wars and several firefights. Major violence has been halted by cease-fires in previous rounds of conflict, but they have always been fragile.
In the past, every agreement has brought about a brief time of calm, but the larger, underlying issues of the conflict are rarely addressed, which prepares the ground for the upcoming round of bombings and rockets.
Hamas is likely to exert more pressure to obtain concessions on crucial matters, such reducing the embargo and securing the release of Israeli prisoners, now that it has more clout in this round.