The probe led by the investigators from the Israeli Army published their findings acknowledging “its failure” in restricting Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
According to the findings, the Israeli army miscalculated Hamas’s intentions, believing that the group did not pose a significant threat and was not preparing an attack of this scale.
It said that Israeli defence forces (IDF) were overconfident in their high-tech border fence, thinking that it would prevent all incoming threats.
“October 7 was a complete failure; the military failed in fulfilling its mission to protect Israeli civilians,” an Israeli military official said, briefing reporters about the report’s contents.
Although Israel was aware that Hamas was starting to engage in unusual activity starting from 9 pm local time (19:00 GMT) on the night of October 6, they believed the group was preparing to carry out a drill or small-scale attack.
Meanwhile, Israeli intelligence and military officials conducted a meeting between 3 am and 5 am on the morning of October 7 when Hamas had already finalised their objectives to attack Israel while the IDF concluded that there was no immediate urgency, reports claimed on Friday.
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Despite some credible and concerning intelligence, reports suggest “certain actions were also miscalculated by the Israeli military officials, like routine activity by Hamas’s armed wing and its antitank unit.”
Furthermore, the findings revealed that the Israeli actions were shaped by the idea that Hamas did not want an all-out war with Israel and would instead focus on small attacks in the West Bank.
As per reports, Israeli intelligence was too focused on monitoring senior Hamas officials on October 6 and 7, and so they failed to read the signs of what was happening in Gaza despite ample intelligence.
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