At the time of writing, Palestinian fighters from Gaza are in control of several Israeli settlements, mostly surrounding Gaza in the Naqab region. It has been close to sixteen hours, and still, the Israeli army and other security forces are scrambling to find the light switch, so to speak. In a combined military operation that included rocket attacks and a massive ground invasion, Palestinians from Gaza launched an unprecedented attack into 1948 Palestine, or “Israel.”
Israeli journalist Oded Ben-Ami, who broke the news about the surprise attack on October 6, 1973, was on the air today. He referred to today’s attack as a fog shock while referring to 1973 as the October 6 failure. Today, he said that we are now witnessing the October 7 failure. In both cases, all the systems that were supposed to prevent or at least warn of a surprise attack of such magnitude collapsed.
It has been more than ten hours, and Israelis in settlements throughout the Naqab and especially around Gaza are under siege, with Palestinian fighters in control and only a small Israeli military presence. What is perhaps even harder to grasp is that Palestinian fighters have entered and now control the Gaza Brigade headquarters of the IDF — this is where the brigade commander, a general, is stationed. Palestinians from Gaza are walking freely around a military base in disbelief by deserted Israeli tanks.Meanwhile, thousands of wounded are in Israeli hospitals in the region, with reports streaming in of over 200 Israelis dead from this attack. Palestinians in Gaza are reporting that they have scores of hostages.