The chair of the US House foreign affairs committee has claimed that Egyptian intelligence officials alerted Israel a few days before the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas militants but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly ignored the early warning.
Moments before the attack, Israeli intelligence had also noticed increased activity on the Gazan side of the border and sent an alert to Israeli soldiers guarding the border, according to a US media report, citing senior Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) personnel. However, the soldiers failed to act on time, reportedly due to two reasons – they either didn’t receive the alert, or they didn’t see it.
Shortly afterwards, drones remotely operated by Hamas militants from the Gazan side of the border dropped explosives on a small surveillance facility set up by Israeli military and destroyed surviiliance towards and some cellular communication stations.
The drones also destroyed Israel’s other military infrastructure on the border, including remote-controlled machine guns which were installed on the border fortifications. This prevented Israeli security personnel from monitoring the area and combating ground assault.
One group of Hamas militants then approached the border fence and blown up part of it. They then made a small passage, enough to cross SUVs, trucks and motorcycles, using bulldozers.
After blowing up the fence, dozens of Hamas militants on motor cycles crossed the border without any retaliatory strike from the Israeli military, showed a Palestine funded TV video, which was shared by an Independent journalist on X.
Watch the video of Hamas attack on Israel below:
Video of how Hamas started the operation by attacking and destroying strategic positions using Iranian drone technology and then blew up holes in the fence allowing Hamas’ members to infiltrate inside Israel. pic.twitter.com/OZWZ9q2QHC
— Asaad Sam Hanna (@AsaadHannaa) October 8, 2023
In the mean time, another team of Hamas militants continued with their rocket barrage and fired thousands of projectiles towards Israel from the Gaza Strip. A rocket attack is not unusual in Israel as Hamas keeps doing that from time to time.
However, the unusual were the scenes in the background in which Hamas militants were seen paragliding towards Israel. Another group chose the sea way and entered into Israeli territory using small motor boats, similar to what was used by Pakistani terrorists in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
In total, more than 1,500 Hamas militants infiltrated into Israeli territory from different locations, outfoxing one of the world’s most feared intelligence agency Mosad and the strongest Army in the Middle East.
For hours, the militants rampaged through some 20 Israeli towns and several community settlements, killing babies, their mothers and fathers. Some Israeli soldiers were allegedly paraded semi naked and murdered in cold blood.
More than 260 young boys and girls, who had gone to attend a music festival, not far from the Gazan border, were shot dead. Some of the festival goers were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. Some were allegedly burnt alive in their cars in the worst attack on Israel in a generation.
Overall, around 1,200 people, including foreign nationals from the US, the UK, Ireland, Thailand and Nepal, were killed. In response, Israel declared a war against Hamas and vowed to “wipe out every Hamas terrorist off the face of the earth”.