The news that has been pouring in regarding the thousands of deaths in the Gaza conflict and the disruption of housing, livelihoods, food system and medical care of an overwhelming majority of the people in the area is extremely disturbing. The most immediate need is of a ceasefire to be followed by a massive relief effort to help the people of Gaza. This is the overwhelming desire of the peace-loving people of the world who have been shocked by the disproportionate response of the Israeli authorities resulting in a most serious humanitarian crisis within a very short time.

At the same time, most peace-loving people of the world are also highly critical of the terrible October 7 attack of Hamas on Israel resulting in about 1,200 deaths and about 250 hostages being taken within a few hours. Thus, they agree that both the October 7 attack of the Hamas and the disproportionate response of the Israel government should be condemned. In addition, they also agree that more should have been done to prevent the possibilities of the October 7 attack. In fact people all over the world and especially within Israel have been anguished by the inability to prevent the October 7 attack.

As the New York Times reported recently, a document called ‘the Jericho Wall’ had been available to Israeli authorities for about a year in which the blueprint of such an attack had been described. The actual attack on October 7 was very similar to this. The response of the Israeli authorities is that this was considered to be just an imaginary document of Hamas (or related organizations) as they believed that such an attack was beyond the capacity of the Hamas. This is at best an inadequate explanation.

The same report in the New York Times (titled ‘Israel knew Hamas’s attack plan more than a year ago’ by Ronen Bergman and Adam Goldman) also mentioned that around July 2023 there was a warning by an Israeli intelligence analyst who said that this kind of military training was being organized by Hamas. However this too was ignored. Around the same time many videos of such training were emerging on the internet and on social media, showing Hamas training, but these too were ignored by high level authorities in Israel.

These videos showed training for breaching high and strong fencing and even for taking hostages. Egypt’s officials said that they had given warning for a big attack just days before 7 October to Israel. Israeli top authorities denied receiving such warnings, but the Chairman of the US House Foreign Relations Committee said, by way of settling this controversy, “We know that Egypt had warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen” (quoted by AFP, published in The Times of Israel and elsewhere). 6 October 2023 was the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war. Hence security should have been very tight on and around this date. However several security units were moved away from the Israel Gaza-border around this same time for to cover religious functions closer to the West Bank. At the same time, three surveillance balloons were out of action for maintenance work.

Even later, there were several problems and inadequacies in the rescue effort. Hence it is really sad that adequate actions could not be taken to prevent the October 7 attack, while it is increasingly clear that merely by responding to the available intelligence in an effective and alert way it would have been possible to prevent the attack. If there had been no attack on Israel, the disproportionate response would also not have been seen, and several thousand lives would have been saved on both sides.

The lives of more than 2 million people would not have been disrupted, and the threat of a wider regional conflict would not have existed. When Israeli authorities have been questioned regarding the failure to prevent the October 7 attack despite the availability of intelligence, they have stated that such questions would be explored and answers sought once the war is over.

However from the perspective of the people who seek peace without taking sides, it would be better to explore and answer these issues now because the emerging answers would help in a better understanding of what is actually happening. Both from the point of view of ending the serious humanitarian crisis (or preventing it from worsening further) as well as from the point of view of preventing the risk of further escalation, and a wider threat to world peace, it is important to end this war as early as possible .

For this, the excessively aggressive forces and persons on both sides should be weakened and those who favour early peace should take firmer control – on both sides. This process would be helped if all the hidden facts of the war and the pre-war situation are revealed through transparent processes.

(The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children and A Day in 2071.)