NOME: Fausto Rasteli Uzuelli
N:07
SALA:9ºM
TRABALHO DE INGLÊS
Israel's pain still raw a month
after Hamas attacks
It was a day that shattered Israel's sense of its own invincibility and military
might, undermining the security felt by every one of its citizens.
But it did not seem so extraordinary at the start.
When I saw the early morning "red alerts" on my phone warning
of incoming rocket fire from Gaza, we had no idea of the scale
of the assault. I messaged my colleagues - some of whom were
away for the end of the Jewish holidays - to say that I would
head to the office.
Soon I was struggling to absorb the impact of what I was saying
on-air, even as the words left my mouth.
The intense missile fire which had me running in and out of the
office air raid shelter turned out to be a cover for an
unprecedented, complex, long-planned series of attacks.
We saw shocking images of Hamas fighters riding motorbikes
through holes cut in Gaza's perimeter fence, paragliding into
southern Israel, storming heavily fortified military bases and
filming themselves in the gardens of overrun kibbutzim.
Over painful hours, partygoers called into Israeli TV stations
describing massacres as they hid from gunmen at the now
notorious Nova Music Festival. Terrified residents shared videos
of armed Palestinian squads on the streets of Sderot.
It was to prove to be the deadliest day in Israel's 75-year history
with people murdered systematically and ruthlessly. From some
of the kibbutzim close to Gaza, footage later emerged showing
the cold-blooded massacre of entire families. Ultimately, some
1,400 are estimated to have been killed.
The significance of the timing was not lost - as this onslaught
came almost exactly 50 years after a surprise attack by Egypt
and Syria on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur,
sparked a major regional war.
The raw pain and shock for ordinary Israelis, still evident now,
was on full display when I went to Ashkelon on 8 October.
As Israeli security forces continued to battle heavily armed men
literally along the road from us, and rocket sirens continued to
blare, at the hospital, parents searched tearfully and collapsed
in anguish searching for their missing children.
"Raze Gaza!" one tormented mother shouted.
Early on in the war, there was a thirst for revenge and an urgent
desire to restore Israel's deterrence in front of its enemies.
However, polls suggest this has since been complicated by
growing fears about the impact that intense bombardment and a
full-scale ground invasion could have on hostages snatched by
Hamas.
Some 240 people are thought to be held: Israelis and foreigners,
soldiers and civilians and old and young. Demonstrations and
pleas to bring them home are becoming more urgent.
After surviving the nightmare of the Hamas attacks in Nir Oz,
the life of Hadas Kalderon is now transformed into desperately
campaigning to bring home her two children, Erez, who turned
12 as a hostage in Gaza, Sahar, 16, and Hadas's ex-husband,
Ofer. Her mother, Carmela Dan, and her niece, Noya, who were
also abducted, have been found dead.
"I don't even have time to grieve [for] my mother and my niece
because I have to fight for my children and their father that's
still alive," Hadas recently told the BBC. She calls for Israel to
stop its military activity until the hostages are safe.
Israel has rejected calls for a ceasefire without the release of
all the hostages, and has continued bombarding Gaza from the
air.
On Monday, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said that more
than 10,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since
Israel started bombing it last month.
More than 4,000 of those killed were children, the ministry
added.
What compounded the shock of 7 October was the realisation
that Israel's military, the strongest in the Middle East, and its
renowned intelligence forces had failed to detect the attacks.
Many long-time assumptions they had held, together with
political leaders, also turned out to be seriously flawed.
After Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and Hamas took full
control of the territory in 2007, Israeli authorities had tried to
limit the threat it posed along with Islamic Jihad, its smaller
ally, also designated as a terrorist group.
It had become common to hear defence experts refer to Israel's
strategy in Gaza as "mowing the lawn". The suggestion was that
the capabilities of the armed factions could simply be cut back
every now and then by Israeli forces - with all that meant in
terms of casualties.
There were frequent major conflicts as recently as 2008, 2012,
2014 and 2021.
However, in two previous short rounds of violence in August last
year and May this year, which targeted Islamic Jihad, Israel's
military took false comfort that Hamas did not join in. The
conventional wisdom was that it did not want an escalation.
More on Israel-Gaza war
Follow live: Latest updates
Analysis: Jeremy Bowen's five new realities after four weeks of war
Watch: The devastating effects of war on Gaza's children
Explained: Who are the hostages taken by Hamas from Israel?
History behind the story: The Israel-Palestinian conflict
Israel was thought to have bought relative quiet by giving work
permits to some 18,000 Gazans and by allowing Qatar to give
aid and pay Hamas civil servants' salaries.
That assessment proved to be dangerously erroneous. It now
seems clear that Hamas was actually biding its time while
gaining better weapons, including longer-range rockets and
drones, and improving its underground tunnel network.
The idea that Israeli technology had also contained the threat
from Hamas - particularly with the costly barrier that was built
around Gaza complete with cameras, sensors and a deep
concrete base to guard against tunnels - was also shown to be
wrong. Last month, thousands of fighters are said to have
penetrated the fence in about 30 places.
With war still raging, it is still too soon to give a full list of the
mistakes made which led to 7 October.
Israel remains in a state of mourning with the bodies of some of
the dead - burnt or mutilated - still unidentified and more
soldiers being killed on the battlefield inside Gaza.
However, a wide-ranging, post-war inquiry eventually seems
likely. After a turbulent year in Israeli politics, questions may
well be asked about the role of the Prime Minister, Benjamin
Netanyahu.
Much still depends on how effectively Israel can achieve its new
war goals - to dismantle Hamas in Gaza and release the
hostages - and deal with the growing threats posed by Iran and
its proxies in the region.
One month on from those bloody events in southern Israel, the
news remains relentless.
It was a day that shattered Israel's sense of its own invincibility
and military might, undermining the security felt by every one of
its citizens.
we had no idea of the scale of the assault. I messaged my
colleagues - some of whom were away for the end of the Jewish
holidays - to say that I would head to the office.
However, polls suggest this has since been complicated by
growing fears about the impact that intense bombardment and a
full-scale ground invasion could have on hostages snatched by
Hamas.
"I don't even have time to grieve [for] my mother and my niece
because I have to fight for my children and their father that's
still alive,"
On Monday, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said that
more than 10,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian
territory since Israel started bombing it last month.
What compounded the shock of 7 October was the realisation
that Israel's military, the strongest in the Middle East,
The suggestion was that the capabilities of the armed factions
could simply be cut back every now and then by Israeli forces
- with all that meant in terms of casualties.
israel's military took false comfort that Hamas did not
join in.
The conventional wisdom was that it did not want an
escalation.
That assessment proved to be dangerously erroneous.
it now seems clear that Hamas was actually biding its
time while gaining better weapons, including longer-
range rockets and drones, and improving its
underground tunnel network.
