JAKARTA - Israeli authorities are said to be conducting an internal investigation, following the successful attack by Palestinian Hamas militants by land, sea, and air on Saturday, assessing the defense system failed to anticipate attacks on its borders.

"There are irregularities that must be investigated, such as why the surveillance cameras on the Gaza border are not functioning? Why is there a Merkava tank near the border of the guardrail even though there is no preparedness to attack Gaza," said Middle Eastern observer Faisal Assegaf to VOI, Monday 9 October.

"Also why are troops at Israeli military headquarters like a raid, there is even one video showing seven Israeli soldiers, only two armed assault rifles when Hamas troops come to attack?" he continued.

"Also why is the response from the central command at the Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv so slow to give orders to deploy troops, evacuate civilians after Hamas forces and Islamic Jihad are on the streets of southern Israel?" he said.

Meanwhile, Middle East Institute academic at Washington DC Khaled Elgindy said the Hamas attack was a great courage that had never been done before and a major failure to Israeli intelligence.

"Operatively and intelligence, this is a huge failure, it is impossible to overestimate," he said, citing Al Jazeera.

"Gaza is one of the most monitored regions in the world. They control the air, land and sea borders. They usually know what is going on. What comes in and out of Gaza. And the fact they don't know this operation is underway, Palestinians manage to penetrate the border walls and enter Israeli territory, this is a huge failure," he criticized.

In fact, a former top Israeli military official assessed last Saturday's events as a moment of 'Pearl Harbor', referring to the Japanese attack that destroyed the US Serkat military base in the Pacific Ocean in 1941.

"The whole system is failing. It's not just one component. Its entire defense architecture has proven to have failed to provide the necessary defense for Israeli civilians," said Jonathan Conricus, former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) international spokesman, quoted by CNN.

"This is a moment like Pearl Harbor for Israel, where reality still exists today, and there will be reality after today."

The IDF itself, according to its spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hect, chose to focus on fighting and protect the public, instead of discussing whether last weekend's attack was an intelligence failure.

"We will discuss what happened intelligenceally afterward," said Hecht.

Meanwhile, former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin believes there will be an investigation into this, after the fighting ended.

"I am sure that when this ends, there will be an investigation and the public will be asked difficult questions, in the end there will be a decision on it," Beilin said.


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