Is Hamas terrorist attack on Israel the country's biggest security failure in half a century?.

The surprise invasion of Israeli territory by the Palestinian Hamas terrorist movement operating from the Gaza Strip can be described as the country's biggest security and defense failure in at least the last fifty years. This opinion was expressed by Israeli analyst Yossi Pur in Haaretz, echoed by topwar.ru.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link

Israel gathers large amounts of intelligence data, technical capabilities, and cutting-edge equipment, but none of this helped it avoid a surprise attack by Hamas (Picture source: IDF)

According to Yossi Pur, the attack by Palestinian Hamas terrorists on Israel actually exposed the latter's “nakedness” in the field of defense and security, greatly damaging the Israeli secret services' reputation. The Israeli army, security services, and intelligence are considered the strongest in the region: Israel gathers large amounts of intelligence data, technical capabilities, and cutting-edge equipment, but none of this helped it avoid a surprise attack by Hamas.

Israeli analyst Yossi Poore said he felt “deep shame” about what happened, calling it a real “disgrace” for Israel. The culprits for the failure are, first of all, military intelligence and the security service, but the current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be able to stay away, despite his belligerent statements.

The analyst has his own opinion about the latter. Poore writes that even if the IDF destroys the entire Gaza Strip, and the heads of the destroyed Hamas leaders are “lying in the alleys,” this will not be able to compensate for either the massive blow to Israel’s image, nor the shock from the defeat and seizure of military bases, the death or captivity of civilians.

For now, the Israeli military has still not liberated its own territory from the invading Palestinian terrorists. Only after the populated areas have been cleared and order has been restored will it make sense to talk about launching a ground military operation in the Gaza Strip. But its implementation carries with it the risks of scaling up the conflict with the involvement of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, and hypothetically, Iran and Syria. And a crucial problem to solve resides in the 163 civilian hostages (innocent men, women and even very young children), plus a group of Israeli soldiers (captured on Monday morning, October 9) taken by the Hamas which is expected to use them as human shields and exchange means.

Defense News October 2023