An internal Israeli army investigation has concluded that Hamas tricked Israel for years and swiftly overran and defeated an entire Israeli military division on 7 October 2023.
Released on Thursday, the probe found that the Israeli military “failed” to protect Israeli civilians and was not prepared for the Hamas-led attack, during which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as captives.
The command-and-control of the so-called “Gaza Division” of Israel’s Southern Command collapsed within hours of the attack, launched by the Palestinian movement’s armed wing at 6.29am.
Top Israeli officers, including the division’s Southern Brigade commander Asaf Hamami and many company and platoon commanders, were killed by Hamas fighters by 7 AM.
According to reports citing Israeli security sources, only 767 soldiers were stationed at the boundary with Gaza on the day. Around 5,000 Hamas fighters entered the area by land, air and sea in different waves of the attack.
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The first series of investigations, conducted by the Southern Command, Operations Division, Israeli Air Force and Israeli Navy, found that the regional unit tasked with guarding the boundary of the Gaza Strip was overpowered in the first hours of the attack.
Israel’s military had missed obvious signs of the impending attack and preparations around it, ignoring some reports and warnings from even the day before.
Furthermore, because no immediate threat was assumed, the army had stuck to usual protocols on deployment, with only drones dispatched for surveillance missions after intelligence received overnight on 6 October.
According to the reports, the Israeli military’s Gaza Division, which is stationed along the 59km barrier to Gaza, was defeated for around 10 hours.
“October 7 was a complete failure, the IDF (Israeli army) failed in fulfilling its mission to protect Israeli civilians,” a senior Israeli army official told reporters following the publication of the probe.
“Too many civilians died that day asking themselves in their hearts or out loud, where was the IDF?”
Within the first six hours of the offensive, Hamas’s Qassam Brigades gained operational control over Israeli communities nearby the besieged enclave, alongside Israeli military posts, and the main paths in the western Negev area.
Its fighters were attacking numerous areas simultaneously, which the investigations estimate at 114 locations, as the Israeli army scrambled to regain control with minimal forces and capabilities.
Less than 10 minutes after fighters led by the Qassam Brigades crossed into Israel, the Gaza Division declared Parash Peleshet (“hostile intrusion” in Hebrew), a code that refers to the highest degree of infiltration.
The investigation found that the ground attack had three main influx of Hamas fighters, while the invasion via sea using seven speedboats and air using paragliders was carried out by just 38 and eight Palestinian fighters respectively.
Perception of Hamas
The Israeli military’s internal investigations found too that Israel’s perception of Hamas underestimated the Palestinian group’s military capabilities, focusing instead on what was perceived to be the bigger threat coming from Iran and Lebanon‘s Hezbollah.
The Israeli army considered the attack as a form of “deception” by the Palestinian group, and a wide-scale attack was not seen as realistic or feasible.
The inquiry into the events of that day has sparked reactions across the political spectrum in Israel.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for “whitewashing” its own responsibility for the invasion.
“The army is demonstrating courage and values and investigating itself without any attempt to whitewash or cover up its responsibility. It is time for the failed bunch of cowards called the ‘Israeli government’ to do the same. Instead of running away from responsibility all day, they should learn from the army and establish a state commission of inquiry,” he said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, the army’s outgoing chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, said he took “responsibility” for the attacks.
“I embrace my responsibility. It is mine. I was the commander of the army on 7 October and I have my responsibility and I have all of your responsibility. I see that as mine too. And I see that in every command of mine that went wrong, there is also a part of me,” he said.
In late April 2024, Haaretz released a report, collecting dozens of testimonies, geolocated videos and built maps, investigating the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, showcasing the failure of Israeli security and assistance to civilians.
According to the report, residents of Israeli communities near Gaza were left without rescue for hours, losing faith in their government. Some even appealed to the media for help.
“All of Israel’s intelligence and operational systems collapsed,” the report said.
“All of its political conceptions were proven false. In the space of 24 hours, Israelis lost faith that their state could protect them.”
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