Israel’s failure to prepare for Hamas’s attack was a “colossal collapse” of information gathering, an associate fellow at Chatham House has said.
Speaking to the PA news agency, Professor Yossi Mekelberg said Israel failed to understand Hamas’s motivations and capabilities.
At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel, and more than 400 have been killed in Gaza, since Hamas launched its surprise attack on Saturday.
“This is a colossal collapse, not only of information gathering but the concepts of when Hamas would attack and with what motivations or capabilities,” Prof Mekelberg said.
“How were they able to train despite the blockade? How did they train paragliders?”
Prof Mekelberg said questions have to be asked about how Hamas’s fighters were able to enter Israel.
“Despite (Israel) investing billions and billions of dollars on blocking tunnels and building a sophisticated fence, (Hamas) still managed in a matter of hours to enter into Israel,” he said.
Israel’s intelligence “definitely wasn’t good enough”. he said.
“But also the assumption that this was not going to happen,” he added.
“This is what happened to Israel in 1973, building on the concept that only if certain conditions were fulfilled, that Egypt and Syria would (then) attack.
“I think the same happened here and they failed to identify the signs.”
Prof Mekelberg said the West has failed to take the conflict between Israel and Hamas seriously in recent years.
“Sadly, sadly, no one was taking it seriously,” he said.
“There was complete apathy about it.
“This is the price of that apathy, of not resolving the conflict.”
