“October 7 (2023) was a complete failure”. An internal investigation by the Israeli army on the attack on October 7 admitted the setback of TSAhal that day, which could not prevent the commandos of Hamas from Gaza. “The Israeli army has not fulfilled its mission to protect Israeli civilians,” an Israeli military official said on this Thursday, February 27, on condition of anonymity, on the occasion of the publication of the main conclusions of this investigation.
“Too many civilians died that day, wondering in their hearts, or aloud, where the Israeli army was,” he added, when this unprecedented attack left more than a thousand dead on the Israeli side. “The Israeli army has failed to protect Israeli citizens. The division responsible for Gaza was overwhelmed from the first hours of the war, the terrorists having taken control and perpetrated massacres in (localities) and on the roads of the region,” said the army in a summary of the investigation given to journalists.
“Excess of confidence”
The army acknowledged having sinned by “excess of confidence” and had false ideas on the military capacities of Hamas before the murderous attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement, said the official. “We hadn’t even imagined such a scenario,” the same official told journalists. He added that the Palestinian fighters led by Hamas had taken Israel by surprise, not only because of the magnitude and the scope of the attack, but also of its “brutality”.
The survey, which includes 77 separate investigations on what happened in localities, military bases and multiple clashes around the periphery of Gaza, is about to be presented to people directly concerned.
A three successive waves attack
The investigation revealed that the attack on October 7 had taken place in three successive waves and that more than 5,000 people had entered Israel since Gaza that day. “The first wave […] included more than 1000 Noukhba terrorists (Editor’s note: the elite unit of Hamas) who infiltrated under the cover of a nourished fire “of rockets, indicates the summary of the investigation provided by the army. It adds that a second wave included 2000 fighters and that the third wave was characterized by the arrival of hundreds of others, as well as several thousand civilians.” In total, around 5000 terrorists are infiltrated in Israeli territory during the attack, “said the internal investigation.
In a video statement published by the Israeli army and disseminated after the publication of the investigation results, General Herzi Halevi, Chief of the Israeli Army, said the “whole responsibility” of the failures highlighted by the investigation. “Responsibility liable for me. I was the army commander on October 7 and I am full responsibility for all of you” of what happened, he said.