Expert: Israeli army was completely unprepared - this is a colossal intelligence failure

On the morning of October 7, Israel was subjected to a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. Several groups of militants then infiltrated Israel. The leadership of the Hamas group called these actions Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. More than a hundred Israelis were killed, the number of wounded exceeded a thousand, and these figures are not final.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the country was at war.

A few hours later, Israeli aircraft began striking Gaza.

The Insider spoke with Israeli military expert David Sharpe. Here are the main points from this interview.

What is happening is a colossal failure of the country's intelligence

The Israeli army was completely unprepared. There was a colossal failure of the intelligence community. There was a massive, complex, multifaceted terrorist attack that was not calculated in advance. There was simply no information about it. The enemy achieved complete tactical and strategic surprise, and the consequences were terrible – they were, are still ongoing.

The attack took place in two stages. The first was a massive rocket attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. They fired 2,200 rockets. It was a very massive volley by any measure.

Breaching the border

But the most important and terrible thing is that [the Israelis] were not prepared for a border breakthrough. Because there was no relevant intelligence information, the readiness was at an inadequate level, and a massive breakthrough occurred. In some places, they broke through the fence with heavy machinery, in others they drove in with jeeps and SUVs. They flew over the fence on paragliders.

As a result, a lot of armed terrorists with small arms, machine guns, grenade launchers, and assault rifles ended up in settlements that were already kilometers away from Gaza. And then the massacre, hostage-taking, shooting, and battles with terrorists began. And now there are still settlements where the cleansing continues.

There will be a big war

From the moment it happened, of course, there was a "fog of war", an incomplete understanding of the situation, and panic in some places. Now the task is to completely clear the territory of Israel of terrorists.

And then there is a war, a big enough war. Of course, it is not for me to make decisions, but this will be another stage. And the status quo, as they say, with Gaza, which has existed for many years, cannot and should not be maintained after what happened today.

Previously, the military refrained from a full-fledged ground operation to occupy Gaza and eliminate the main forces of the Hamas terrorist movement. Today, despite the disadvantages of such events, it will be impossible to refrain from such a decision. It will take time. The mobilization of reservists is already underway, as is the transfer of forces to the Gaza Strip.

There are many civilians in Gaza, but we will still have to act

Hamas has about 40 thousand militants. These are full-fledged army formations, not gangs and bands. They have a military hierarchy, battalion commanders, and companies. Small arms, guided anti-tank missiles, including Russian-made Kornet, were smuggled into Gaza long ago through Syria and Lebanon. In fact, former Russian supplies to Syria of this kind have found their way to Gaza. There are also Iranian copies of the Cornets.

The missiles they use to fire at Israel are long-range, including 150 kilometers, and they have both smuggled Iranian ones and their own production from clandestine factories using Iranian technology. They have mortars in large numbers.

This is a very serious force, located in a densely populated area with dense buildings. The Gaza Strip is dug with many kilometers of tunnels and bunkers. They have already prepared for defense.

Following the laws of war, it is very difficult to act in such a situation, there are many civilians there. However, there is no way out and we have to act. These are our realities.

Hamas has Russian missiles

The first [Russian] Kornet missiles were supplied to Hamas by the Hezbollah organization, which received them from Syria, but Russia supplied them to Syria. And for a long time, Russia denied the possibility of the Syrian military transferring missiles to Hezbollah. Russia has not stopped this mechanism, although such commitments have been voiced.

Hezbollah first used these missiles against Israel in 2006, and for a long time the Russians denied the obvious, despite Israeli accusations, until they were shown literally seized boxes of missiles with the stamps "Tula" and "shipped from Tula to Damascus." The Iranians, of course, also handed over licensed copies of the Cornets.

Iran and Hezbollah may join Hamas

It cannot be ruled out that Hezbollah will intervene to distract Israeli forces. And we cannot rule out preventive actions by Israel either. We may see an expansion of the conflict and a real war in the Gaza Strip. Intervention by Hezbollah (which is Lebanon), possibly from Syria. Of course, there are also terrorist cells in the West Bank, the so-called West Bank.

Background. As reported, the Pentagon has announced that it will provide Israel with everything it needs to defend itself against a terrorist attack. Austin assured that the US Department of Defense will work on this in the coming days.