Israel’s pain still raw a month after Hamas attacks

It was a day that shattered Israel’s sense of its own invincibility and military might, undermining the security felt by every one of its citizens.

But initially, it didn’t seem all that remarkable.

We were unaware of the extent of the attack until I noticed the “red alerts” in the early hours of the morning on my phone, alerting me to impending rocket fire from Gaza. I texted my coworkers to let them know I would be heading into the office, even though some of them were away for the last few days of the Jewish holidays.

Before I knew it, I was having trouble understanding the significance of what I was saying live, even while I was speaking.

What I thought was an intense missile fire that caused me to dash in and out of the workplace air raid shelter was actually a pretext for an unprecedented, intricate, and meticulously organized series of attacks.

Horrifying footage showed Hamas soldiers slicing through gaps in Gaza’s outer barrier on motorbikes, launching themselves into southern Israel, overrunning well defended military installations, and taking videos of themselves in the gardens of overrun kibbutzim.

At the now-famous Nova Music Festival, partygoers called into Israeli TV stations over excruciating hours, recounting killings while they fled from guns. Residents, horrified, posted videos of armed Palestinian groups patrolling Sderot’s streets.

It turned out to be the bloodiest day in Israel’s seventy-five-year existence, with individuals being brutally and methodically killed. Later film came from some of the kibbutzim around Gaza, depicting the ruthless murder of entire families. In the end, it’s estimated that 1,400 people died.

The date of this invasion was significant since it occurred nearly exactly 50 years after a major regional war was started by a surprise attack by Egypt and Syria on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

When I visited Ashkelon on October 8, the sheer suffering and shock that ordinary Israelis were experiencing was clearly visible.

Parents in the hospital cried and collapsed in agony as they searched frantically for their missing children while Israeli security forces continued to engage heavily armed men practically down the street from us as missile sirens continued to blare.

“Raze Gaza!” exclaimed a distraught mother.

There was a burning desire for vengeance early in the conflict, as well as an urgent need to restore Israel’s ability to deter its foes. But polls indicate that this has recently become more difficult due to mounting concerns about the potential effects of heavy artillery and a full-scale ground assault on Hamas-apprehensive hostages.

There are 240 or so people said to be detained, including foreigners and Israelis, troops and civilians, and young and old. Calls to bring them home and protests are growing more pressing.

Hadas Kalderon’s life has changed drastically since escaping the horror of the Hamas attacks in Nir Oz. She is now fighting valiantly to free her two children, Erez, who turned 12 while being held captive in Gaza, and Sahar, 16, as well as Hadas’s ex-husband, Ofer. The bodies of her kidnapped niece Noya and mother Carmela Dan have been discovered.

“I don’t even have time to grieve [for] my mother and my niece because I have to fight for my children and their father that’s still alive,” Hadas told the BBC just recently. She demands that Israel cease all military operations until the hostages are secure.

Israel has refused requests for a ceasefire unless all hostages are freed and has kept up its aerial bombardment of Gaza.

Since Israel began attacking Palestinian territory last month, more than 10,000 people have died there, according to the health ministry in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.

The government also stated that children made up almost 4,000 of the dead.

The realization that Israel’s famed intelligence services and military, the best in the Middle East, had missed the strikes added to the shock of October 7. Along with political leaders, many long-held beliefs were also shown to be gravely incorrect.

Israeli authorities attempted to curtail the threat posed by Hamas and its smaller affiliate, Islamic Jihad, which was also classified as a terrorist organization, following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 and Hamas’s complete takeover of the area in 2007.

Defense analysts were now frequently heard calling Israel’s Gaza tactic “mowing the lawn”. It was suggested that Israeli forces could simply reduce the armed factions’ capabilities periodically, albeit at great personal cost in terms of lives.

Major battles occurred often as recently as 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021.

But in two earlier brief episodes of violence against Islamic Jihad, in August of last year and May of this year, Israel’s military found false solace in the fact that Hamas refrained from participating. It was widely believed that it did not wish for things to get worse.