History Rhyming

That was my kid Charlie's comment about the Hamas attack on Israel today.  This was not a barrage of rockets, this a full blown armed incursion.

There were at least 250 Israelis killed, over 1000 wounded, and an unknown number taken by force back to Gaza.

Palestinian appear to be at the same level.

A brief summary of the events of today:

An estimated 250 Israelis were killed and around 1,600 were wounded after hundreds of Palestinian militants infiltrated Israel on Saturday morning by land, by sea and by air in one of the deadliest attacks in the nation’s history.

The army confirmed that a “substantial” number of Israeli soldiers and civilians, captured by Hamas forces, were being held hostage in Gaza. Many others were being held captive in Be’eri, a southern border kibbutz, and in the town of Ofakim.

Soon after crossing into Israel, Palestinians militants took control of numerous agricultural communities on the border, including the town of Sderot. By evening, the military had regained control of most of them, the Israel Defense Forces said, and had killed hundreds of Palestinian militants who had crossed the border or were attempting to do so.

………

The strength, sophistication and timing of the Saturday morning attack shocked Israelis. Hamas fighters used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing the Mediterranean territory, then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speed boats on the coast. 

Motorcycles and paragliders?  It sounds like something out of Mad Max.

………

Associated Press photos showed an abducted elderly Israeli woman being brought back into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle. Images also showed fighters parading captured Israeli military vehicles through Gaza streets.

Someone f%$#ed up big time in the Israeli security establishment.

It appears that Hamas caught the IDF completely flat-footed.

Thousands of Hamas missiles and rockets rained down on Israel throughout the day, reaching as far north as Jerusalem. After Israel struck two high-rise buildings in Gaza belonging to Hamas, Tel Aviv was bombarded with missiles, and at least one building in the south of the city collapsed.

………

With Israelis in shock and the number of casualties rising, moves were underway to form a national emergency government with parties in the center-left.

This is a complete fiasco, I'm not sure that bailing out Netanyahu is a good thing.

………

The surprise attack, which is being described both as Israel’s “Pearl Harbor” and “9/11,” began at 6:30 A.M. when Palestinian militants, using tractors, destroyed a section of the border fence separating Israel from Gaza and crossed over with what appeared to be little to no resistance. At the same time, Israel’s airspace was infiltrated by Palestinian drones, and boats carrying militants landed on the shore in Israel’s south.

The attack took place 50 years and one day after the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, the last time Israel had been caught so completely off guard.

It coincided with the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which marks the end of the weeklong Sukkot celebrations.

………

Many of the casualties and hostages are believed to have been young Israelis attending an outdoor rave at Re’im, a kibbutz near the border.

It appears that Netanyahu is already being blamed with the failure, which is a good thing, because this is clearly a consequence of the Israeli PM neglecting his duties to pursue his political survival.

Unlike the Yom Kippur war, which occurred 50 years and one day ago, where there were extensive warnings of mobilizations, there appears to have been no intelligence reports  of any sort preceding this event.