Much of Israel was awakened on Saturday morning to scarcely conceivable scenes and sounds of rocket attacks, and parts of southern Israel to gunfire, with the accompanying unthinkable news that dozens of terrorists had infiltrated from Gaza.
Precisely 50 years after the Yom Kippur War, Israel was under surprise attack — not by Arab armies, but by the Hamas terrorist group.
As sirens wailed throughout southern and central Israel, and the thuds of rocket impacts and interceptions reverberated, television and social media platforms began broadcasting clips showing what ought to have been unimaginable — including armed terrorists in what appeared to be a convoy of seven or eight white pick-up trucks, four or five gunmen dismounting from one of them on the street of a southern Israeli city, and a handful of others seen running along the sidewalks, weapons drawn.
As rocket and mortar attacks continued, the IDF confirmed what was unfolding: dozens of terrorists had infiltrated into Israel — some by land, some by air on hang-gliders, and, reportedly, some by sea.
Israel’s sophisticated border fencing along the Gaza border had been breached in several places, Army Radio reported.
Clashes were ongoing in several residential areas in the south — with IDF special forces dashing to deploy in southern areas — and residents close to the Gaza border were ordered to stay inside their homes, doors locked.
Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai spoke of 21 “active scenes” across southern Israel.
Hamas terrorists seen clashing with Israeli forces in southern Israel. pic.twitter.com/uJWd07xpVO
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 7, 2023
A woman in her 70s was reported killed in a rocket attack, with reports of further casualties following, including fatalities.
Security forces were tackling several terrorists in the town of Sderot, a police spokesman said. “Dozens of terrorists” were in the city, Channel 12 news reported.
Amid the limitations of military censorship, there was reported to be “considerable concern” regarding the possibility of soldiers and/or civilians being kidnapped and taken back to Gaza.
The very mechanics of reporting what was unfolding were complicated by the endless alerts about ongoing rocket fire, with residents of dozens upon dozens of towns and other residential areas ordered into saferooms.
A resident of a southern kibbutz, locked inside her home, called Army Radio to say that gunmen were roaming the kibbutz, and that its security squad was trying to track them down.
Later, at around 10:30 a.m., a woman named Doreen called Channel 12 news to report that gunmen were inside her home at a southern kibbutz, and trying to get into their locked saferoom, where they were hiding. Pleading for help, she ended the conversation with an exclamation, “Oh,” and the line went quiet.
Three hours after the first rockets were fired at around 6:30 a.m., Channel 12 TV showed what it said were ordinary Gazans crossing from the Strip into Israel, exploiting the breaches in the security fence.
Muhammad Deif, the notorious commander of Hamas terrorist operations, declared the attack to be the start of the “great revolution” and was quoted by Hamas TV urging Israeli Arab citizens and those in neighboring states to join in the attack. Channel 12 news reported that calls were being issued in mosques in East Jerusalem to carry out attacks.
As Israeli forces sought to find and confront the gunmen, the IDF formally declared a “readiness for war” — indicating preparations for a full-scale war in Gaza. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, promising victory and declaring that Hamas had made a “great mistake,” ordered a call-up of military reserves, its precise scope to be determined by the extent of the crisis.
Even as Israel’s political chiefs began to convene in emergency consultations, with the full extent of the infiltration and its consequences still unfolding, Hebrew media began quoting unnamed officials castigating the political and military echelons for the fact that Israel, preoccupied with internal argument, had again been taken by surprise.
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eli Marom, the former commander of the Israeli Navy. (Photo credit: Moshe Shai/Flash90)e firt
“We’re in a war with Gaza, the likes of which we’ve not known before,” Danny Kushmaro, the Channel 12 TV news anchor said.
“All of Israel is asking itself: Where is the IDF, where is the police, where is the security?” agreed Eli Maron, the former head of the Israeli Navy, alongside him in the studio. “It’s a colossal failure; the hierarchies have simply failed, with vast consequences.”
Amos Yadlin, a former IDF intelligence chief, invoked echoes of the Yom Kippur War — another attack marked by “intelligence failure,” with the enemy initiating conflict.
Still, he stressed, Israel needed to remain calm. The immediate priority, Yadlin said, was to track down and deal with all the terrorists inside Israel, and prevent the conflict spreading to other fronts, especially Hezbollah in the north.
