According to a report published by the Russian newspaper "Vzglyad", the surprise attack carried out by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) against Israel confused the entire international community and destroyed one of the myths associated with Israel in a few hours.
"Arab groups" crossed Gaza's borders and dismantled barbed wire and metal barriers, writer Yevgeny Krutikov said in his article, adding that Hamas fighters carried out incursions from the sea via "exotic" steamboats and paragliders.
A few kilometres from the border with Gaza, Israeli reservists were stationed at some 12 fortified posts and military bases. The location and arrangement of these fortified points and bases were left without external security and no guard service.
Quick intrusion
According to the article, Israeli defense points are barracks located behind a fence, with a tower mounted with a machine gun mounted that is automatically controlled from the barracks.
In contrast, a commercial and improvised quadcopter dropped a grenade on the turret and wiped out the "fortified" point defense unit.
Afterwards, members of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and the various resistance factions entered the barracks and opened fire on soldiers along the Gaza border.
In total, he said, the Palestinians cut off communication between half of the "fortified" sites in just one hour. Large military bases were not guarded, and their staff did not receive alerts after a level one threat was recorded.
In fact, no one had time to announce this warning after external guards were injured after old Soviet grenade launchers were detonated and soldiers were killed in barracks. Moreover, one tank was burned while heading to a place by a grenade that was also dropped from drones.
Groups of Palestinians entered major settlement centers on the coast and burned down the police building in Ashkelon and positioned themselves in the middle of it.
Meanwhile, thousands of rockets were directed from the Gaza Strip towards Israel at once, exposing the shortcomings of the Iron Dome system, which for many years was presented as the most advanced in the world. Rockets began to fall to the Haifa border, meaning that all occupied territory from south to north was defenseless.
Despite the "primitiveness" of these missiles, any air defense system becomes useless when thousands of them are launched. Also, 12 air defense missiles are unable to shoot down <>,<> targets simultaneously.
Destruction of the defense line
As a result, the Palestinians completely destroyed the so-called line of defense against Gaza in three hours, turning deep into the occupied territories. After that, some Arab groups returned to Gaza with the prisoners, and others remained in several settlements at predetermined points such as local police stations and military bases.
The manner in which the operation was carried out reveals that Palestinian fighters identified targets in advance, followed advanced routes, coordinated movements among themselves and knew communication frequencies and security passwords, meaning that it took at least six months to develop the plan and reconnaissance of the area.
Israel's Mossad and Israel Security Agency consider restricting Hamas' access to weapons and materials for rocket production to be one of its primary goals, so pre-emptive strikes on Gaza are carried out mainly on rocket production sites and depots.
Hundreds of people were involved in the preparation of the attack, including arms buyers and individual vehicle commanders, something the Mossad and the ISA knew nothing about, demonstrating the failure of Israeli intelligence.
Unlimited resources
The occupying forces have unlimited financial resources to acquire modern technology, including an external surveillance system abroad. The occupation's losses exceeded human resources and equipment, because the Hamas offensive also destroyed the myth of the Israeli security forces' action and ability to act.
The Israeli security forces have been feeding on the glories of victories of past generations, exemplified by the ineffectiveness of intelligence and counterintelligence, and the IDF's disregarding the changes in combat tactics occurring in today's conflicts.
Meanwhile, the IDF did not give a clear answer on how the attack was orchestrated and only made loud political statements that the Israeli response would be harsh in the near future. However, the first strike, prepared under the watchful eye of Israeli intelligence and counterintelligence, has already been missed.
Israel's Two Options
For now, the Israeli leadership is faced with two options: either to invade the Gaza Strip on the ground or to limit itself to rocket attacks from the air. From a political point of view, Israel cannot content itself with responding with rocket attacks on Gaza and projecting its firepower by redeploying elite tank brigades such as Golani in the south.
Since the occupation has not suffered such losses in many decades, the response will be more violent than in previous cases of the worsening of the Arab-Israeli conflict. However, the Arabs succeeded in accomplishing the main task of destroying the myths surrounding Israeli defensive systems, a victory that is more important than the purely military counteroffensive currently organized by the occupation forces against them.
Current events could reshape the entire military and political structure of the region, potentially leading to the emergence of new alliances and new front lines.