How Did Hamas Pull Off the Massive Terrorist Attack?

Yes, we (make no mistake, the U.S. is in this up to our eyeballs) are in the middle of the tragic events unfolding in Israel including the part of that country known as the Gaza Strip. It’s been noted numerous times there was a massive intelligence failure the made Hamas terrorist attack more successful than they thought it would be. I’ll address that in a bit. Also, related to the intelligence failure were Israeli polities/priorities of Netanyahu’s that left Israel vulnerable. Enough so that Hama (with Iran’s help and blessing) exploited beyond their expectations. I’ll also address that.

However, long ago in what seems like another life I was a “ground pounder”, a Marine “Grunt” and my thoughts always wind up going into the actual goings on preparing for and carrying out an attack from the perspective of those staring down the rifle sights at each other whether at close range or hundreds of yards away. (Which if one can shoot is plenty close enough to kill or be killed) It comes down to where you want to get to as in to what spot on the ground/map and what whether barriers (natural or man-made) or people are both are in the way. Ideally, you can quickly punch through a line of defense and do one of two things, or better still both. Get enough of your own people behind the enemy’s main line of defense/resistance (MLR) or expand it wider on one or both flanks allowing more of your own people and equipment through, again so you can start raising hell in the enemy’s rear.

If you’ve paid even minimal attention to Israel and it’s issues over the years you’re aware there are two huge sore spots to resolving the conflict between Israeli Jewish and Palestinian people. The West Bank and the Gaza Strip.  Gaza is aptly named as it’s well under 30 miles in length and while 7.5 miles wide at the widest point most is three or four miles in width. With well over two million people in the habitable parts it’s also one of the top few most densely population pieces of land on the planet. I’m sure not only recently but in newscasts over the years you seen those quite tall, packed together buildings where people live. What you’ll learn more about because it’s so important is that UNDER all that is an extensive network of large tunnels – virtual underground cities. Deep and reinforce enough that for all the rubble you see and will see with those buildings on top of the ground the folks down below will be quite safe. Well, some of them. Hostages sure as hell won’t be.

So the terrorist organization and the actual terrorists, at least most of them are now literally underground, directing those remaining above to carry out ongoing terroristic attacks and gather info. on forces massing to come into Gaza from Israel proper. Or from the sea which borders the entire western edge of the Gaza strip.  I’m sure some will be on the lookout with night-vision equipment looking for paratroops coming down during the night. “HALO” (high altitude jump, low opening of parachute) troops won’t be in large numbers but if undetected they can make quite an impact for larger operations to come. Still, with leaders of Hamas and the hostages in that vast underground network there is no chance of a surprise hostage rescue mission.

All of that brings me back to the original point which is how the hell did Hamas pull off this appalling attack in the first place. Especially since (take a look at the map in the title pic) there is an Israeli military base right there next to Gaza and what had been a heavily fortified and well-guarded (not “manned” – lots of women serve on front lines over there) border. That’s why I brought up the West Bank (of the Jordan River), which had been partitioned for Palestinians by the U.N. after Israel gained its independence and which Jordan (to much international outcry) annexed later to ensure an eventual Palestinian homeland once a peace agreement could be reached. Well, in one of the wars initiated by it’s neighbors Israel gained control of the West Bank. In violation of international laws/treaties Israel has been establishing settlements of Jewish Israelis ever since. It takes IDF forces (Israeli armed forces) to protect those places and each one requires more.

Netanyahu has always been against the idea of a Palestinian homeland. Not I must say as intensely as opponents of Israel that have not only denied its right to exist but wanted to destroy the place and rebuild with no Jewish people but he did (and does) want every Palestinian gone. Preferably not even to adjacent countries but well away. So, international law and even some direct at times U.S. criticism be damned he’s put development of more settlements in the West Bank on steroids. It’s his way of making the area unlivable for Palestinians and forcing them to go elsewhere, again preferably far from Israel. Not every Israeli has agreed with this (not by a long shot) over the years but Netanyahu has kept himself in power longer than any other PM in that country’s history. If you think our electoral college is bad, imagine living in a country with a Parliamentary system where an actual majority more often than not doesn’t exist. The leader of the Party with the most seats makes deals with enough leaders of other Parties to form a working govt. Some sleazy, even corrupt stuff can and does go down. Interestingly, Netanyahu is under enormous legal pressure for many of his own actions. Like another leader we’re familiar with he knows being in power offers a form of protection from legal consequences.

However, the Israeli justice system has refused to be cowed hence “Bibi” deciding to neuter the legal system, taking power away from the courts. Already unpopular this unleashed an explosion of massive and repeated protests throughout Israel. Also in many Jewish communities in other countries. Large protest continued even when he eventually (if only from his perspective) temporarily backed off. However an already damned near untenable situation in the West Bank became even more so since all this started early this year, resulting in… You guessed it. Shifting IDF forces there, and away from the border with the Gaza strip!

Hamas, and their sponsor Iran took notice. It’s been pointed out that such a massive and coordinated attack took months to plan. I’ll be the first to agree with that assessment. Hamas not only had to get weapons and supplies into that tiny area,  but also infiltrate enough people into Israel as well. Not to mention quite a bit of training for the terrorists who would carry out the actual attacks. Any of us who’ve stared down rifle sights knows that without “logistics, logistics logistics” we are screwed. Training and weapons as well as ammo, at least enough to get by until reinforced are critical. At the same time, if the position(s) and people you’re attacking aren’t as great in number or have access to their own logistics and reinforcement as they normally would then your chances of success (and staying alive) are greatly enhanced.

As this article lays out, (the BBC is always a good source) neither Israel or anyone else saw what was coming. Not the massive amount of rockets that would be able to overcome the previously fairly successful “Iron Dome” defense system against such attacks.  Whether the number was the five thousand Hamas claims or half that number as Israel says it was way more than you’ve seen in rocket attacks that have made the news year after year:

The rudimentary rockets often struggle to evade Israel’s advanced Iron Dome missile defence system – but thousands were fired in a short space of time to overwhelm it.

I should note that while not delved into in the linked article it seems there were also thousands of rounds of Mortar rounds fired. From this alone we know this was more than a terrorist organization (which despite providing some although not nearly enough daily living help to those living in Gaza) could acquire without a State sponsor. In this case they can play Sgt. Shultz all they want be we know, we KNOW it was them. The same is true of other specialized equipment and training that we saw last weekend.

This was a well-planned (and tragically well-carried out) attack at multiple points, both along the actual border and OVER it. Along the border:

At 05:50 local time, a Telegram account associated with Hamas’s armed wing posted the first images from the ground, taken at Kerem Shalom – the most southern of Gaza’s crossings.

So much for terrified Palestinians who might have wanted to convince Egypt to allow them to flee south being able to do so. Hamas wants as many human shields as it can get. At almost the same time, multiple similar well planned attacks took place at the northern border. And as we know multiple attacks in between. For example a concrete barrier was blown up, in another spot an old bulldozer advanced to crush fencing. (had the border had the regular IDF presence it would have been stopped well before it got to the fence) In all there were over two dozen breaches. Including near that music festival next to the Re’im Military Base! WTF? It shows the levels to which Netanyahu deployed the IDF away from Gaza to cover his ass in the West Bank.

I took note of the use of “paragliders” which again, at roughly 10k a pop for the types of rigs used means major State sponsored terrorism.  The linked article isn’t that long and it’s not dense reading so I urge you to take a few minutes and check it out. The point though it was much more successful than Hamas assumed it would be and I’ve given a basic explanation here of why. I’ll have more to say in days and weeks to come about not just Iran’s role as the State Sponsor of this terrorist attack now war. And how and why various country’s interests both good (like Israel and Saudi Arabia making progress) and bad. Iran, and Russia are longtime allies and this helps Russia in Ukraine. If that worries you it gets worse because China has to be looking hard at all this and if things escalate (as they might well do) they’ve got the opening they need to take over Taiwan by force.

In the meantime countless people are suffering and dying and bad as it’s been, far more and worse is yet to come.

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