Leading up to the attack, Hamas fighters were being trained and drilled — often in plain sight, Reuters reported.

  • Hamas duped Israel into thinking it cared more about economic stability than a war, Reuters said.

  • Meanwhile, it was practicing for an attack in plain sight, the report said.

  • Hamas trained its fighters on a mock Israeli settlement, learning how to storm it, Reuters added.

———

The Palestinian militant group Hamas built a mock Israeli town in Gaza and practiced attacking in plain sight — but Israel didn’t react, Reuters reported on Sunday.

Hamas militants launched a surprise offensive on Israel on Saturday, in what has been described as the worst breach in Israel’s defenses in decades.

The attack followed a careful campaign of deception by Hamas that ensured Israel was caught off guard over the weekend, an unnamed source, with connections to the group, told Reuters.

Despite convincing Israel that they had no interest in war, Hamas militants were practicing for the offensive in plain sight by setting up a mock Israeli settlement in Gaza to train its fighters.

  • dustyData@lemmy.worldEnglish
    796·
    1 year ago

    Let’s not pretend that this isn’t a huge popularity boost for Netanyahu and the Israeli right. Now they have an excuse for years of military operations and populist propaganda. Israel has a military industrial complex that not even Iran can match. A plausible theory is that they just let it happen. Since they feel like it gives them carte blanche for unlimited retaliation. I fear we will see a Palestinian genocide in this decade.

    • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
      255·
      1 year ago

      The Israeli population is furious at Netanyahu for the intelligence failures that allowed this to happen. He may stick around for a unity government while military operations are conducted, but he’s gonna be toast after this.

    • Chocrates@lemmy.worldEnglish
      921·
      1 year ago

      Look at 9/11, the attack was over in less than a day and it shaped 2 decades of politics and retaliation. They have little reason to “let it happen”

      • AnarchoDakosaurus@toast.oooEnglish
        10·
        1 year ago

        They had warnings an attack was coming. They probably thought it would be pretty insignificant though rather then a proper offensive.

        Theres some other good discussion of this already in this thread, to reiterate what others have said, its not unthinkable to belive that the government may have ignored those who warned of this, assuming they could politicize a minor attack, only to be caught completely off gaurd when a complex, multi pronged offensive appeared.

        There’s a big difference between 9/11 and the WTC parking lot bombings. When warned of terror attacks in early 2000’s, America was probably thinking of the former rather then latter.