Error on Hamas, excess of confidence … What the Israeli army investigation into the October 7 attack contains

An internal investigation by the Israeli army on the attack on October 7 acknowledged the “total failure” of the army to prevent the attack on Hamas commandos from Gaza, which left more than a thousand deaths in Israel, a military official said on Thursday.

“On October 7 was a total failure, the Israeli army did not fulfill its mission to protect Israeli civilians,” said the official 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.

The scenario of a discarded terrestrial attack

This TSAhal report demonstrates the unexpected character, in the eyes of the army, of the attack perpetrated by Hamas fifteen months ago. “We had not even imagined such a scenario,” said the military official, adding that the Palestinian fighters led by the Islamist movement had taken Israel by surprise, not only because of the magnitude and the scope of the attack, but also of his “brutality”.

This same direction had assessed that Yahya Sinouar, the former head of Hamas killed by TSAhal last October, did not wish a major climbing of fighting with Israel, considering the 2021 war as a failure. The army’s high officers estimated that Yahya Sinouar was going to be satisfied with rocket fire towards the Hebrew state, and was not going to command a major land attack.

The attack decided in 2022, the precise date chosen in May 2023

The investigation carried out by the Israeli army, which aims to understand the failure of October 7, now demonstrates that Hamas decided in April 2022 to carry out a large -scale attack on Israeli territory. The Islamist movement was even 85 % ready in September 2022, but timed.

The report reveals the decision to strike Israel on October 7, 2023 was taken a few months earlier, in May.

Three successive waves of Hamas fighters

The investigation reveals that the murderous offensive of Hamas took place in three successive waves and that in total, more than 5,000 people have penetrated in Israel since the Palestinian enclave that day.

“The first wave (…) included more than 1,000 Noukhba terrorists (An elite unit of Hamas) who have infiltrated under the cover of a nourished fire, “said the army in his report. She adds that a second wave included 2,000 fighters and that the third wave was characterized by the arrival of hundreds of others, as well as several thousand civilians. “In total, around 5,000 terrorists infiltrated Israeli territory during the attack,” said the investigation.

A bad knowledge “of the military capacities of the enemy”

Tsahal also recognizes a certain “excess of confidence” vis-à-vis his sworn enemy. The manager who signs the investigation report said that the Israeli army did not have a “good knowledge of the military capacities of the enemy” and that it had sinned by “excess of confidence”.

The Israeli army also concludes that it was not perfectly aware of the state of the tunnels, used by Hamas to store weapons and hide hostages, present under the Gaza Strip.