“The timing is definitely symbolic, and I believe it was picked that way by the initiators,” Sarit Zehavi, President and Founder of Alma Research and Education Centre and former researcher in the Israel Defence Forces Intelligence Corps, told ANI.
On Saturday, which was also a major Jewish holiday, Hamas militants launched a series of rocket strikes that hit major cities across Israel, and it sent waves of fighters across the border into southern Israel, killing hundreds of people and taking captives back to Gaza.
Hamas militants used explosives to breach the barriers and then used bulldozers to widen the gaps. Militants entered into Israel in motorcycles and SUVs. On its part, Hamas officials cited long-simmering tensions including a dispute over the sensitive Al-Aqsa Mosque sacred to both Muslims and Jews. Claims over the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, have spilled into violence before, including a bloody 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2021. Hamas also has cited the expansion of Jewish settlements on lands Palestinians claim.
Nearly, fifty years back on October 6, 1973, Israel witnessed, the Yom Kippur War when Egypt and Syria launched a sudden assault in an effort to reclaim lost territory. When asked if the timings of recent attacks were accidental, Sarit Zehavi said, “No, they are not accidental, but it’s not the reason.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said part of the reason for Hamas’ Saturday attack on Israel could have been disrupting a potential normalizing of Israel-Saudi Arabia ties.”It wouldn’t be a surprise that part of the motivation may have been to disrupt efforts to bring Saudi Arabia and Israel together, along with other countries that may be interested in normalizing relations with Israel,” Blinken told CNN in an interview on Sunday.The eruption of violence also comes at a difficult time for Israel, which is facing the biggest protests in its history over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to weaken the Supreme Court while he is on trial for corruption. The protest movement accuses Netanyahu of making a power grab. That has bitterly divided society and unleashed turmoil within the military, with hundreds of reservists threatening to stop volunteering to report for duty in protest.
The devastating surprise attack by Hamas on Saturday also exposed a stunning intelligence failure by Israel and a slow response by apparently unprepared military forces, former and current U.S. officials said. “This is our 9/11,” said Major Nir Dinar, spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Forces. “They got us.”
“They surprised us and they came fast from many spots – both from the air and the ground and the sea.” (With Agency Inputs)
