The Israel Defense Service in Gaza During the October 7 Attack: Israel’s Domestic Security Service notified that Hamas was not a threat
Ronen Bar, the director of Israel’s domestic security service, was not sure if what he was seeing was a Hamas exercise or something else.
Their judgment that night might have changed if they had been monitoring the traffic on Hamas’ radios. The Unit 8200 of Israel’s signals intelligence agency had stopped listening in on the networks because they felt it was too much work.
Until nearly the start of the attack, nobody believed the situation was serious enough to wake up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to three Israeli defense officials.
Since gunmen from Hamas — the armed group that rules Gaza — burst through the border fence on Oct. 7, killing around 1,400 people in southern Israel and taking more than 220 more hostage, according to Israeli authorities, Gazans say they have been living inside of a nightmare. In response to the attacks, the Israeli military declared a siege of the densely populated territory, cutting off electricity, water and medical supplies as it rained down a relentless barrage of aerial and artillery bombardments.
The most powerful military force in the Middle East underestimated the size of the attack and failed to gather intelligence because they wrongly believed that Hamas was not a threat.
Hamas had undergone extensive training for the assault, which it was barely able to detect for a year. The fighters, who were divided into different units with specific goals, had meticulous information on Israel’s military bases and the layout of kibbutzim.
More than 8,000 people have died in Gaza since the beginning of the year, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The Israeli military also said that it was conducting airstrikes in Lebanon after at least 16 rockets were launched from there into Israeli territory. In Gaza, 47 aid trucks crossed the border from Egypt carrying water, food and medicine — the most in a single day since trucks were first allowed in on Oct. 21, but still insufficient compared to the levels of assistance that aid organizations say are needed.
Israel announced it will attack Gaza from the air, land and sea, expanding its war against Hamas days after its tanks began an intense ground operation. The military said civilians should move south as troops enter Gaza from the north.
“We will do what we need to do”: Palestinians, Israelis, and Palestinians in Gaza’s “Humanitarian Zone”
On his Facebook page on Sunday, Fathi expressed his fears that he had become blind and powerless after internet and phone service went back to normal.
Details of the fighting are expected to become clearer today as phone and internet service begins to return to Gaza. The enclave was without power for most of the weekend. Palestinians said that airstrikes had cut off cell networks, making it harder for them to coordinate medical rescues, speak to family or share news about the fighting.
They didn’t know if their loved ones were alive or dead. Emergency phone lines did not ring. Desperate paramedics tried to save people by driving toward the sound of explosions. There were people left to die in the street.
Daniel Hagari said the fighting in the north of the Gaza Strip continues, “We will do what is necessary to achieve the goals of the war.”
Israel has continued to urge the evacuation of northern Gaza, including hospitals, where beds are completely full with injured people and hallways have crowded each night with Palestinians seeking refuge from airstrikes. At least a third of hospitals in Gaza have been forced to cease operations due to a lack of fuel.
There have been raids 50 meters from the hospital since this morning. Israel refused to comment about the claims.
Meanwhile, an official said Israel is aiming for a significant increase in aid to Gaza in the coming days, calling on Palestinian civilians to head to what he described as a “humanitarian” zone in the south of the territory.
Israeli Failures After the Second Day of the Gaza Siege: A Critical Counterattack on the Israel’s Intelligence and Internal Security Agency
Netanyahu took responsibility for Israel’s failures in a social media post that was deleted after a backlash and blamed military intelligence and internal security agency failures.
The organization stated that it was worrying that the civil order was beginning to break down after the war and siege on Gaza.
Thousands of people broke into warehouses operated by the UNRWA on Saturday to steal food and other survival supplies.
In this next stage, the ground war, troops are expected to face bloody urban combat. Hamas is likely to booby-trap apartments and fire at Israelis from rooftops. Gaza’s densely packed streets are difficult to attack with tanks, which could help Hamas despite Israel’s stronger military.
The blackout also complicated evacuation efforts. For more than two weeks, Israel has been telling Gazans to move closer to the border with Egypt, and it has caused hundreds of thousands to leave their homes.
The Israeli military said two of its soldiers were injured overnight in northern Gaza, its first reported casualties of the expanded ground incursion. Follow our updates.
Israelis Presses into Gaza as Pro-Palestinian Protests Spread Worldwide, a Moment after the Lewiston, Maine, Explosion
The man who killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, was alert to the fact that he was going to kill more people at the base, officials said.
After two nights and a day of internet and phone service outages, Palestinian communications came back on Sunday. Palestinians were relieved that relatives were able to reach them.
At Ah-Ahli Arab Hospital, hospital officials have evacuated displaced people, but staff are still treating patients, said Dr. Fadel Naim, an orthopedic surgeon working there. The hospital was the site of a deadly explosion on Oct. 17 that killed at least 100 people, according to estimates by U.S. intelligence services.
It has been difficult to get food in Gaza. The lack of electricity and fuel for generators has put many food suppliers out of operation. Palestinians living in Gaza tell NPR about long lines at bakeries and searches for open vendors that end in failure.
He said that a lot of the things that are needed in a system are not met by many of the things that are needed in a system.
Israel presses into Gaza as pro-palestinian protests spread worldwide: A Palestinian-American who’s been stranded in Gaza
Israel would allow the Palestinians to make repairs to damaged pipes and resume water supplies to central Gaza. The U.N. reported that water supply in southern Gaza had experienced “significant improvement” in recent days as its agencies have delivered small amounts of fuel to desalination plants and pumping stations.
“We have been taking extreme measures to reserve whatever water we had left. Abood Okal is a Palestinian-American who was visiting family in Gaza when the war began and has since been stranded.
He said that he, his wife and son are with about 40 other people in a house in southern Gaza. Many members of the household walk to a Filtration station every day to fill up a few gallons to bring home for everyone.
Okal said Thursday that the filters ran out of diesel last week. We do not have drinking water today. I think we have just enough to last us through tonight, then tomorrow we’ll be basically out,” he said.
The pro-Palestinian protests took place in a number of places including New York City, London, Madrid, Casablanca, Istanbul, Islamabad, and other cities.
The airport in a Muslim-majority region of Russia closed after pro-Palestinian protesters broke in when a flight arrived.
Video posted to social media appeared to show a crowd on the tarmac surrounding the plane, which landed at the Makhachkala airport around 7:15 p.m. local time.
“All Dagestanis empathize with the suffering of victims of the actions of unrighteous people and politicians and pray for peace in Palestine. The head of the Dagestan Republic said in a post that the airport incident is outrageous and should be assessed by law enforcement agencies.
Source: Israel presses into Gaza as pro-Palestinian protests spread worldwide
Sinwar: Israel’s Target in the Oct. 7 Attack on Israel, and the Hamas-Salpeter Regime Against Israel
The leader of Hamas in Gaza is one of Israel’s targets, according to a military spokesman. Israelis say Sinwar was the chief architect of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that left 1,400 dead.