Dawn was breaking in Israel around 6:30 a.m. last Saturday. Al Qassam and Quds Brigadesarmed arms Hamas And Islamic Jihadlaunched an attack of such magnitude that it was perfectly organized and rehearsed. Israel He had not suffered in half a century. A week later, the total death toll is known: at least 1,300, with around 150 people missing, according to Israeli officials.
That would be the morning Repeated attacks on military bases, massacre of unarmed civiliansYes at a music festival and raids on farming communities (kibbutzim) massacres and kidnappings of men, women and children.
Hamas was used electronic warfare and unmanned aerial vehicles With explosives that will disable the state-of-the-art defense system of the separation fence, for which Israel has spent billions of euros. He then used excavators or explosives to make holes, or sent his men on motorized paragliders.
They rehearsed it and released it on the networks
Hamas had planned everything down to the millimeter. According to the AP agency, he even published a video on his social networks a month ago showing how to carry out the attack.
The training closely resembles the footage that would be distributed after the attacks. The militants appear to have used explosives to blow up a replica of the separation fence, just as they did during the real attack. Later, They enter the reconstruction of the military base with a four-by-four truckThey attack from room to room in perfectly synchronized choreography, firing semi-automatic weapons at paper silhouettes.
Two-minute propaganda clip Shared on Hamas social media on September 12. Shows equal A “control room” containing suspected Hamas militantsThe attacker, wearing military uniform, follows the attack on various television screens.
It is also seen that attempts were made to destroy the communication towers, where the massacre will take place on Saturday, with bombs dropped by unmanned aerial vehicles or antennas with dynamite.
Kibbutz WhatsApp group
The attack was classified as an act of terrorism by Spanish authorities and other Western countries because Most of those killed were civilians. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are on the lists of terrorist groups of the European Union and the United States.
British channel BBC Access to WhatsApp groups of approximately 200 phones She is from the mothers’ group at the Be’eri kibbutz, a few kilometers from the center of the Gaza Strip. “The chat shows what Hamas is like, minute by minute, in never-before-seen detail.” He oppressed, killed and burned people “At home, they return again and again,” the British network says. “This is an example of how that might feel in southern Israel, as gunmen affiliated with Hamas cross the border and attack dozens of communities.”
“There is a terrorist on the stairs. Call someone.” It is one of the messages that can be read. The next 24 hours would be a succession of messages filled with terror, fear and screams due to the delay in the arrival of Israeli soldiers. “Where is the army?” “Why does it take so long?”.
In many cases, after 20 hours of messages they still had not come to their rescue. Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government has faced domestic criticism because several of the battalions that are supposed to protect southern Israel are in the West Bank, where a wave of settler violence and attacks on Palestinian civilians this year has ended. The path of more than 200 people.
They shared tips in the WhatsApp group closing the doors of “safe rooms” tightlyHouses that Israeli houses have but are designed to protect against rocket attacks and can be opened from the outside. Hundreds of families took refuge there. Many could not protect themselves. It has been confirmed that children, the elderly and pregnant women were among the dead.
They also asked each other for help. “Can someone see if mom is okay?” “Shall I open the door of a man who says he is an Israeli soldier?”. At one point someone changed the group’s name to “Be’eri Mothers Emergency.”
Some of the Israelis in these communities were armed and They fought small wars against the attackers.. The NYT spoke with one of them, Golan, who described how shots were exchanged and how he managed to scare off a Hamas terrorist who broke into his home. It also tells the story of how a 10-year-old neighbor girl, whose mother was killed and her father was seriously injured, screamed for help and eventually survived.
The attacks did not occur only in kibbutzim, that is, cooperative societies with Marxist roots. At least 260 murders of hundreds of young people were committed in the desert area near the Gaza Strip. Electronic music early on a Saturday morningWhen Hamas opened fire. And also in cities close to Gaza, such as Sderot.
Hamas’ “little army”
The Israeli Army has heavily bombed the most populated areas of Gaza throughout this week. The result is that images of entire neighborhoods evaporate.
This Friday afternoon, after issuing a 24-hour ultimatum for civilians to leave the northern part of the Strip, the Army began launching attacks on the area.
Everything indicates that something will happen land raidBut the intention to control Gaza in the long term appears complex, according to experts consulted by this newspaper. Hussein Ibish, an expert at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, warns: Israel may be falling into a trap set by Hamas. The Israeli Armed Forces had already suffered deadly ambushes while trying to occupy the Strip in 2014.
Saturday’s attack showed that Hamas has taken advantage of these years to become a tougher opponent than when it seized control of Gaza in 2007. Since then, the Islamist group has been trained and allegedly armed by Iran or its allies in other countries, such as the group. Lebanese Hezbollah.
“They have a small army” up to 40,000 menAccording to a Reuters analysis based on 11 sources and analysts close to the Islamist group. Their little one military training academy, abilities cyber security and a naval command.