Analysts: Israel Has Not Yet Begun to Confront Its Failures After 3 Years of War

Tel Aviv - Afaq News - Israeli analysts believe that the political, military, and intelligence failures revealed by the October 7, 2023 attack are still ongoing and without comprehensive accountability, and that Israel has not yet begun to confront them, while the government refuses to form an official investigation committee regarding it.

On that day, Hamas attacked Israeli military bases and settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip, killing and capturing Israelis in response to the "daily crimes of the occupation against the Palestinian people and their sanctities, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque," according to the movement.

Since October 2023, Israel, with American support, has been waging a genocidal war in Gaza, resulting in more than 74,000 deaths and over 175,000 Palestinian injuries, most of whom are children and women, with destruction affecting 90 percent of the infrastructure.

Israel is "without victory"

Military analyst Amos Harel from Haaretz stated on Wednesday that Israel "has not yet begun to confront its failures," despite three years having passed since the Hamas attack.

He added that "the issue of the collapse of the Israeli intelligence and security system remains unresolved, and the officials who ignored warnings about the Hamas attack are still in their positions."

He pointed out that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government "is procrastinating in conducting an independent investigation" through an official inquiry committee appointed by the Supreme Court, at a time when the repercussions of the attack and the subsequent war are still ongoing.

Harel considered that the attack was "exceptionally large in scale and scope," and its results revealed the extent of the failure that afflicted the defense establishment and state institutions and the government "at the highest levels."

He added that the war launched by Israel on multiple fronts did not achieve "victory or even a cessation of fighting," and did not extricate Israel from the "strategic impasse" that followed the October 7 attack.

In addition to the genocide war in Gaza, Israel launched wars against both Lebanon and Iran, as well as airstrikes on Yemen and Qatar, along with near-daily ground incursions and artillery shelling in Syria.

For decades, Israel has occupied Palestine and territories in Lebanon and Syria, and refuses to withdraw from them and establish an independent Palestinian state, as stipulated in the relevant United Nations resolutions.

Deception Plan

"Unprecedented military and intelligence failure".. This is how analyst Avi Issacharoff described the October 7 attack in the newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth" on Wednesday.

He stated that Israeli security agencies failed to comprehend the magnitude of the threat that was forming from Gaza by "Hamas", which was considered in Israel to be the "weaker adversary".

He continued that the prevailing Israeli perception was that "Hamas" was deterred and avoiding confrontation, and that its focus was on improving the civil and economic conditions in Gaza and consolidating its rule.

He added that this strategic vision is linked to Netanyahu's policy and has also been encouraged by the security establishment.

Netanyahu has been required since 2024 to appear before the International Criminal Court on charges of committing war crimes and other crimes against humanity against Palestinians during the genocide in the Gaza Strip starting from October 2023.

Issacharoff added that Israel not only allowed Hamas to strengthen its power but also fell into a "wide-ranging deception plan" that reinforced the incorrect Israeli perception of the movement.

He further stated that Hamas has established for years the impression that it does not want confrontation, focusing its messages on issues such as Qatari funds (aid for Palestinians) and work permits from Gaza, which reinforced the Israeli belief in the possibility of containing the movement.

On the operational level, Issacharoff said that the movement suggested to Israel that its focus was on digging tunnels, while it was preparing for a large-scale ground attack above ground and breaching the border fence.

He considered that "the catastrophe of October 7 was the result of a long-standing and incorrect political perception."

Eisacharov said that after three years, the picture of what happened began to clarify, and there were no "deliberate actions or conspiracies," but rather "numerous grave mistakes" made by leaders at various levels.

He believed that these mistakes primarily arose from the prevailing perception of "Hamas" and the resulting underestimation of potential scenarios.

He also saw that "the biggest failure of the Israeli government" lies in the continued rule of "Hamas" over the Gaza Strip three years after the attack.

He stated that the responsibility resting on Netanyahu and his government for the events of October 7 is "absolute and enormous."

The Netanyahu government has repeatedly rejected calls for the formation of an official investigation committee since the attack, while the opposition claims that the Prime Minister bears political responsibility for the failure.

Changes in intelligence

Military analyst Avi Ashkenazi from the newspaper "Maariv" stated on Wednesday that the October 7 attack revealed "huge failures" in Israeli military intelligence "Aman", the General Security Service "Shabak", and the foreign intelligence service "Mossad".

He noted that the Israeli army announced on Wednesday changes in the tasks and values of the military intelligence division, prioritizing the mission of warning about wars, hostile activities, and threats to Israel.

He added that the army has made updates over the past two years to the operational warning concept, reviewed existing warning models, and introduced new models.

He also strengthened the warning operations centers at various levels and in the theaters of operations, and launched new training programs within the "Aman" training system, according to Ashkenazi.

The Jewish opposition's attack on Netanyahu intensifies due to his responsibility for the October 7 attack, amid upcoming general elections scheduled for October 27.

Opinion polls show the Jewish opposition bloc ahead of Netanyahu's camp, but without a majority that would allow for the formation of a government to replace the current one, which is described as the most right-wing in Israel's history.