At dawn, on 7 October 2023, Hamas fighters blast over 100 holes in the walls and fences that separate the Gaza Strip from Israel.

A repost from 6 October 2025

More than 3000 fighters pour through the gaps and launch a surprise attack on nearby military bases. Some fly over the barrier on motorised para-gliders, others take to small boats to attack north of the Strip. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is underway.

Much of what we thought we knew about the attack has turned out to be false or only partially true. We owe it to ourselves and, above all, to the Palestinian people, to understand both what really happened that day and why it happened.

7 October dawns

Thousands of Hamas Al Qassam fighters wake in the early hours to messages calling them to arms, directing them to assembly points across the Gaza Strip. For all but a few this is unexpected. Is it just another training exercise? The Israelis apparently thought so.

6.26 am. Hamas starts to launch a massive barrage of low-yield missiles across the barrier fence.

At 6.30 am, Muhammad Deif, commander of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, broadcasts a message. The Western media avoided sharing his words which make clear what drove Hamas to this fateful point.

“Since the criminal occupation continues to inflict an outrageous siege on our beloved Strip, and considering the ongoing crimes against our people and nation, the occupiers’ provocations and their disregard for international laws and resolutions, as well as American and Western support given to them and international silence, we have decided to put a stop to all this with God’s help, so that the enemy can understand that no more can they sow chaos without being held to account. We announce the beginning of the ‘al-Aqsa Flood’ operation.” Muhammad Deif .

The Israelis tend to hold Palestinians in contempt, as their racial inferiors. In Mohammad Deif, they massively under-estimated their enemy: his ability to master tunnels, professionalise Al-Qassam, co-ordinate a weapons manufacturing industry inside one of the most tightly sealed 3600 borders in the world and plan a military break-out from a concentration camp that was, in terms of military-on-military, a resounding success. Well-educated and cultured (he formed a theatre group and was an amateur actor), he also came from a family that had fought the occupation from the founding of the State of Israel.

Deif made clear that he wanted the Israelis to pay a price for “the crimes committed throughout these long, wretched years”.

Morning

Hamas operatives use a variety of tools to blind the Israeli border surveillance technology and take out the autonomous guns. It takes the Israelis hours to appreciate the scale of what is underway.

Formations of Hamas fighters head straight for the headquarters of the Gaza Division at Re’im Army Base where Brigadier General Avi Rosenfeld leads the defence. Mid-morning an IDF officer messages through to the Kiryat bunker in Tel Aviv where political and military leaders are gathered: “The Gaza Division has been defeated.” Panic and confusion sweep across the military the........

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