Israeli Retaliation

"The [Israel Defense Forces] is responsible for the security of the country and its citizens, and on Saturday morning in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, we did not do it. We will learn. We will investigate. But now is the time for war."

"The entire system under him [Yahya Sinwar, Hamas's Gaza Strip leader] are dead men. We will attack them. We will dismantle them."

"We will do everything to return the [Israeli and foreign men, women and children] hostages back  home."

Israeli chief of defence staff Lt.Gen. Herzl Halevi

Israelis inspect the rubble of a building a day after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday   Oded Balilty/AP

Speculation is that the training of hang gliders, the preparations for Saturday morning's deadly incursion into Israel by Hamas over the border from Gaza, the coordinated plans for the use of explosives and bulldozers to break through Israel's high-tech, supposedly impregnable border wall, took place elsewhere than the proximity of the border, that rehearsals were enacted and instructions taught in areas elsewhere than where they could be detected by Israeli  intelligence. And to ensure that no prior warning come from within Gaza itself, only top-echelon leaders in Hamas had knowledge of the timing.

 

The reality is that it was still a failure of Israeli intelligence that led to the critical lack of awareness resulting in the invasions that followed when scores of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists streamed under cover of rocket fire across the border to Israel to prowl through the streets of border towns, villages and kibbutzim, firing at anyone they came across, entering homes to butcher families and their children. And with them were unaffiliated Palestinian Gazan men who took the opportunity to join the vicious attacks, to take part in the killing and looting.

 

And, of course, Hamas hunted down and slaughtered no fewer than 260 young people attending a music festival taking place close to the Gaza border. Where the loud sound of music and the revelry of young people in love and at play at first failed to take notice of the explosions until they were confronted by armed and vicious terrorists whose mission was to slaughter them all. And the nightmare that unfolded went on for hours, people trying to flee, finding temporary cover in shrubbery as the terrorists continued their rampage, raping women, murdering, taking hostages of horrified, terrified Israelis.

 

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from Ashkelon in southern Israel October 7, 2023   Amir Cohen/Reuters

 

Lt. Gen. Halevi made no effort to make any excuses for the failure of the army, he forthrightly and clearly admitted he and they had failed to guard the border fence, enabling the terrorists to stream through to terrorize the Israeli border communities in the western Negev, leaving a horrendous count of over 1,300 people dead, many mutilated, bodies burnt. Most of the dead were civilians, a smaller number of 220 represented soldiers taken by surprise and murdered by the terrorists.

Expressing sympathy with the families missing their loved ones, captured as hostages and taken to Gaza, Lt. Gen. Halevi swore that everything possible would be done to return them to Israel and to exact the ultimate price from their kidnappers. Between them, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad claim to have taken130 hostages, although there are reports that up to 200 are being held. When Israeli troops temporarily entered Gaza searching for hostages and their captors, they discovered the bodies of some of the hostages.

Following the sorrowful admission of responsibility and regret Lt. Gen. Halevi praised those Israelis, including long retired reservists who had rushed south to repel the attack, and the thousands of reservists who have reported to duty, including the many Israelis returning from abroad with the intention of joining their brethren in their common fight against Islamist terror emanating from Gaza. Rockets continue to be fired from Gaza, triggering sirens around Netanya, and Ariel in Judea and Samaria. There is much work to be done ahead.

Fire and smoke rises above buildings during an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on October 8, 2023. Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

"The fighting spirit of the IDF hit Gaza with all its force. And we won't stop here. There's in this decisiveness and rage. In the process of a widespread attack, we are killing many terrorists, many commanders, destroying and demolishing terrorist infrastructure that supported this cruel and terrible crime."

"Gaza will not look the same. We will get to a situation where whoever leads Gaza will be hit hard. We'll take him apart."

"We will do everything to restore this contract [the trust of Israelis in the protective security of the land by its military forces], to restore security."