Last week, Israeli intelligence concluded that Hamas would not launch a full-scale invasion.

An Israeli military vehicle captured by Palestinians during ongoing clashes in Gaza City Photo: Anadolu

Israeli officials wrongly concluded that Hamas He was not interested in provoking a full-scale war with Israel, it turned out, as questions arise about the major intelligence failures that led to Saturday's attack.

According to the Israeli left-wing newspaper Haaretz, a security assessment carried out last week, revealed that Hamas was seeking to «avoid a full-fledged war with Israel» without officials being aware of plans for a combined rocket attack and raids in the south.

The same assessment concluded that Hamas did not want to «jeopardize past achievements that have improved the lives of Gazans,» Haaretz reported, referring to economic incentives offered by Israel to Gaza to ease tensions, such as permits to work.

This comes after the death toll from the Hamas attack, in which terrorists shot scores of civilians and took up to 50 hostages, rose to 300.

Multiple attack included land, sea and air invasions. to southern Israel, which would require careful planning.

The dead include at least 26 Israeli soldiers, the vast majority of whom were between the ages of 19 and 21, according to a list of names released Sunday morning by the army news agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (far right) holds a security meeting with senior defense officials following the Hamas attack. Photo: UPI/Alamy Live News

Some Israeli media vehemently condemned the attack as the worst breach of Israeli security in 50 years, warning that not even the complete destruction of the Gaza Strip and the death of the entire Hamas leadership would make up for it.

“Netanyahu's recklessness led to a war with Israel,” read the headline of a column by Haaretz journalist Yossi Werther. , referring to the Prime Minister of Israel.

“Even if the entire Gaza Strip is destroyed [and there is no need to],” he wrote, “and even if the heads of Mohammed Deif, Khaled Meshal, Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and their associates roll down the alleys, this will not compensate for the biggest a security failure since 1973.”

He added: “This will not sweeten the bitter taste of the disaster or ease the shock of the death toll.” and kidnapped.»

Focus on fighting Hamas

Israeli army officials acknowledged that «in the future» there needs to be a discussion about what went wrong, but for now they are completely focused on fighting Hamas.

< p>«We'll talk about it when we need to.» talk about it,” an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman told reporters.

Israel has for years used a “carrot and stick” approach in the Gaza Strip, balancing military confrontation with Hamas and easing economic restrictions. This included thousands of permits that allowed Gazans to cross the border into Israel to work.

This strategy was based on the belief that Hamas wanted to minimize direct confrontation with Israel, as well as with other factions inside Gaza , such as Islamic Jihad is becoming the main source of rocket attacks and other escalation.

“It was an intelligence failure; It couldn’t have been any other way,” said Jonathan Panikoff, a former senior US official and analyst at the Atlantic Council think tank.

“This was a security failure that undermined what was seen as Israel’s aggressive and successful multi-layered approach to Gaza Strip.»