How was it possible for Hamas to carry out the attack?
Hamas’s brutal attacks on Israel came as a complete surprise to the Israeli security services. Several thousand rockets against various targets in southern and central Israel during the morning created chaos and destruction in several cities with many injured.
At the same time, Hamas used a new and unproven tactic. With gliders and drones, Hamas groups advanced to the border, blowing up fences so that cars motorcycles with armed terrorists entered the small villages near the border and fired indiscriminately at unarmed civilians. On a small kibbutz in the area, about ten civilians were slaughtered in pure bloodbath.
Just under fifty civilians, among them several elderly, and military personnel were captured and brought into Gaza.
The attack took place during a Jewish weekend and the more or less total lack of protection for the civilian population has drawn huge criticism against the Israeli security services, which are normally considered to have a very good knowledge of what is happening inside Gaza. The Hamas operation is said to have been planned completely without electronic aids and was thus able to be kept secret.
The intelligence fiasco will very likely require major changes within the security service when the conflict settles down somewhat.
Can other countries benefit from the situation?
Few or no countries benefit from the attacks and escalation. Hamas is urging other militant Islamists to take up arms against Israel, but no clear signs of an escalation elsewhere have yet appeared.
There is, of course, the concern that Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon will act. It would have major consequences throughout the region.
What happens now?
It is very likely that the conflict will escalate further and that the Israeli retaliation has only just begun. However, Israel must consider how hard to proceed, as Hamas now has a large number of prisoners, both civilians and military. The Hamas leadership has threatened executions if the bombardment of Gaza becomes completely disproportionate.
And the civilian population of Gaza will be, as so many times before, the big losers. The number of civilian casualties in Gaza will increase with more and more Israeli airstrikes.