The Islamist movement surprised the world when it launched a terrorist operation against Israel on October 7th. Thousands of rockets were fired as militants entered the area, attacking military positions and kidnapping more than a hundred civilians.
First calm, then terror. Hamas launched a large-scale terrorist attack against Israel at dawn on Saturday, October 7th. The Islamist movement, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007, fired thousands of rockets into Israeli territory as its fighters crossed the border, even though it was considered inviolable. They then occupied Israeli military positions and killed and kidnapped civilians on the streets.
>> Here you will find the latest information on the war between Israel and Hamas
“What happened is unprecedented in Israel,” admitted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Israel, more than 700 people had been killed and 2,150 injured as of October 10. According to Hamas, 560 Palestinians were killed and 2,900 injured in Gaza. For many experts, the scale of the operation called “Al-Aqsa Flood” is the result of careful preparation that began several months ago.
Israel’s defenses are littered with missiles
On Saturday at 6:30 a.m., in the middle of Shabbat, the first rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel. According to Hamas, 5,000 rockets were fired, while the Israeli army counted 3,000. The aim of this maneuver was to saturate the “Iron Dome”, the Israeli anti-aircraft system, which allows the launch of in-flight missiles or missiles fired within a radius of 4 to 70 km.
“Due to the large number of missiles fired in a short period of time, the system worked, but was quickly saturated,” summarizes Amélie Ferey, researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri). “Some rockets were intercepted, others reached Israeli soil.”
Hamas propaganda images broadcast on Telegram show fighters from the terrorist group crossing the border between Gaza and Israel, October 7, 2023. (HAMAS)
As the rockets hit Israel and the first warning sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, 60 km from Gaza, the terrorists reached several points on the Gaza-Israel border. Within a few hours they crossed several border crossings: the Erez, Kerem-Shalom and Kissufim border posts, BBC News counts. A Hamas Telegram account posted propaganda images showing fighters crossing the fence on motorcycles.
Land and sea infiltration
According to a source close to Hamas told the Portal agency, an elite force of 400 men carried out these ground infiltrations. She used explosives to open breaches, which were widened by bulldozers to allow the men to pass. Elsewhere on the border, Hamas images show an explosion on a piece of concrete wall. Then a man makes a sign and militants equipped with bulletproof vests and weapons run towards the military base where Israeli soldiers are located before shooting them.
To cover these ground attacks, fighters flew over the border with hang gliders and paragliders. Before the operation, a video published by a Hamas Telegram channel showed a unit apparently practicing for the attack. Its members used one- or two-person paragliders and practiced landing on targets, the British news agency continued.
Propaganda images from a Hamas Telegram account showing fighters training with Zouari kamikaze drones, October 8, 2023. (HAMAS)
According to Hamas, the group also used Zouari suicide drones. These weapons are named after former Tunisian aeronautical engineer Mohamed Zouari. According to Libération, he had traveled to Gaza several times to help Hamas develop its drones. The Zouari drones are less powerful than those used by the Israeli army, but have already allowed Hamas to enter the Jewish state’s airspace. The terrorists also carried out their operation by sea. Israel said it repelled two attempts by militants on boats.
“We have never seen Hamas penetrate so deeply into Israeli territory with such simple equipment. These are people with assault rifles in pickup trucks, on motorcycles or amphibious boats,” observes researcher Amélie Ferey. It is not “the register of the most modern military equipment. What is changing is the complexity of the operation, both on land, at sea and in the air,” adds David Rigoulet-Roze, Middle East specialist and associated researcher at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (Iris).
Homemade weapons from Gaza
How could Hamas prepare for such an operation? The Gaza Strip has been under blockade since 2007 and its two million residents have no way to leave. Entrances and exits are controlled by the Israeli army and generally prevent any arms traffic. However, “over time, the Gazans learned to make weapons with little equipment,” recalls Amélie Ferey. “They are working on small drones, explosives… If you have the will to fight, you fire with all your might,” she emphasizes. For example, in 2018, Gazans used “incendiary kites” to attack Israel during the “Great March of Return.” Simple dragons with burning clothing tied underneath.
“You can easily access tutorials on YouTube that show you how to build drones.”
Amélie Ferey, researcher at Ifri
at franceinfo
In 2020, Ismaël Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, said in a broadcast on Al-Jazeera that the militants were making weapons from leftover Israeli rockets from the 2014 Gaza war, Al-Monitor quoted the Middle East News website as saying.
“There are many weapons factories hidden throughout the Gaza Strip. “That’s why monitoring the raw materials used has always been crucial in this context,” explains David Rigoulet-Roze. Hamas, for example, recovers materials unearthed after Israeli bombings of buildings. This means recycling electrical wires, metal pipes or even crumbled concrete, according to a 2021 report from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank on American policy in the Middle East near Israel.
Transport of materials from abroad
These materials found on site in Gaza may have been used to build the “Hamas subway,” that network of tunnels dug under the Gaza Strip and near its borders. “These tunnels are likely to transport material from abroad,” adds Amélie Ferey. Since 2005 and Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has secretly imported weapons from its allies Iran and Syria, the Times of Israel pointed out in 2021, citing the Israeli army. Rockets, explosives and metal are shipped by truck from Sudan and then transported across Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.
According to Fabien Hinz, an independent analyst specializing in missiles in the Middle East, Hamas has acquired abroad notably Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 missiles from Iran and M302 missiles from Syria, the Washington Post reports. On Al Jazeera, the group said it had received Russian Kornet anti-tank missiles by land and sea.
I’m republishing my 2021 overview of Hamas’ rocket arsenal. A little outdated but still relevant. pic.twitter.com/4ruClV0whL
— Fabian Hinz (@fab_hinz) October 7, 2023
“We knew that Hamas had weapons, but their quantity was underestimated,” continues Amélie Ferey. According to Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog, who has retired from the Israel Defense Forces, the Islamist group could have 8,000 to 10,000 projectiles, the Washington Post quotes. “The tactical landscape in which Hamas now operates [c’est] a professionalization of its armed forces, an artillery worthy of a conventional army,” David Khalfa, Middle East specialist at the Jean Jaurès Foundation, told Libération.
The uncertain role of Iran
In addition to equipment, Hamas has long been training for this type of operation. “Gaza has been at war since 2007. It is a group that uses violence to achieve its goals. She trains every day,” remembers Amélie Ferey. The fighters are recruited very young. In 2021, a Vice documentary showed how young boys learned to use weapons and fight in the Gaza compound in front of everyone. “Hamas was able to take advantage of Benjamin Netanyahu’s relaxation of vigilance in Gaza in recent months to prepare for the operation,” the researcher notes.
Above all, Hamas would not have been alone in these preparations. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah executives, Iran helped plan the attack. The details of the operation were refined at several meetings in Beirut, Lebanon this summer. Back in April, Iran announced that it was mobilizing its partners, including Hamas, to prepare attacks on Israel, the Wall Street Journal reported.
But on October 10, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s highest authority, denied any involvement of his country while reaffirming Iranian support “for Palestine.” According to Ali Barakeh, a member of the exiled Hamas leadership whom the Associated Press agency met in Beirut, the attack was planned without informing his allies. Only a “handful” of commanders knew about “Zero Hour,” he said. He warned that nearly 2,000 Hamas members took part in the fighting, out of an army of 40,000 in Gaza alone.