On Saturday, in the early morning hours of October 7th, Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets into Israel and stormed the security fence. They killed hundreds in nearby villages and at a music festival and abducted a large number of people. At the time of recording, it's estimated they took 150 hostages, many of them civilians. It's the deadliest attack since the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago. It's been referred to as Israel's 9/11. Israel retaliated with airstrikes and ordered a "complete siege" on the Gaza strip. On Sunday, Israel formally declared war. At the time of recording, Israel’s military, the IDF, said more than 1200 people had been killed in the attacks so far. More than 1000 people were killed in the Gaza strip, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Allow me to start on a personal note – and we'll get to the analysis part just a little later. Just last month, at the beginning of September, I went to Israel with about 20 other journalists to learn more about the geopolitical security situation. We went up close to the Golan heights in the north, to Ramallah in the Palestinian territories and to the border with Gaza in the south. That's where I met Tal Shamir, a social psychologist and community coordinator for the Eshkol regional council just next to Gaza. He was showing us around there, providing background in a complicated area. He and his family lived just a couple of kilometers away from the Gaza strip. I caught up with him over the phone.
All over the world, people are in shock over the terrorist attack on Israel. How could Hamas terrorists launch such a surprise attack? Thousands upon thousands of rockets, terrorists paragliding into Israel to open fire on residents and people at a nearby festival. There was reportedly even a mock Israeli settlement in Gaza used for practice. How did all of that go unnoticed? How is that possible with Israel's advanced tech? I turned to Yossi Mekelberg, a professor of international relations and associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Program at the independent policy institute Chatham House, based in London.