Too much propaganda, I am still confused.
What happened?
What was the goal?
Who did it?
Planning?
Coordination?
I’ve heard that it was more successful than anticipated. That it was a calling of questions. It was the first time something like that was attempted. That the military techniques were innovative.
Not so much asking about the effects, or what has been made. But in the days, months, years prior, what was the thought process? Who was involved and what was their mandate/constituencies?
What was intended for Oct 8, December, January and June?
AFAIK it was entirely planned by the HAMAS wing of the Qassam brigades with the rest of the factions only being notified that day. The goal initially seems to have been a massive raid to take as many IDF soldiers hostage. But the Qassam brigades completely caught the IDF with their pants down and overran every IDF output surrounding the Gaza strip. This surprised everyone, even the Qassam brigades. Emboldened thy carried on to the next IDF bases which were deeper into civilian territory. They went through, taking any civilians they saw hostage and probably killing any who resisted. But it seems like the main goal was more IDF hostages.
Meanwhile there was basically no response from the IDF for the entire day. Back in Gaza, gangs of civilians started leaving the strip thinking their time had finally come. They were the ones who were breaking into Israeli civilian homes and almost all of the really graphic content from the event comes from them. Israel has lead a huge campaign to say all of that was explicitly planned and executed by HAMAS but it’s been routinely debunked.
It wasn’t until the end of the day, like 12 hours that the IDF finally responded and they responded with tank and helicopter gunfire instead of infantry. They chased the Qassam brigades and any escaped Gazans back into the strip by destroying everything in their path. There some were clear reports from some of the helicopter pilots that they were not to bother distinguishing between Palestinians or Israelis.
There’s much conspiracy around if Israeli officials knew that the attack was coming and allowed it to happen, or maybe they just allowed the raid to go on for all the political currency it would give them. The more grounded theory is that the Qassam brigades sincerely defeated the IDF that morning and the IDF had no response but to heavily bombard their own population to drive the Qassam brigades out. As I understand the IDF had completely written off Gaza as a solved problem and put all of their resources to the north to deal with Hezbollah. The south was only lightly staffed with green recruits.
You have any resources on that?
AJ documentary: https://tankie.tube/w/ireC1oD7DG3SeyJ6iDpdS9
In their own words https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/PDF.pdf
EI https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-helicopter-shot-civilians-7-october-rave-police-find
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/how-israel-massacred-israeli-children-then-blamed-it-hamas
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/ny-times-found-no-7-october*removed*-victims-reporter-admits
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-army-probe-covered-friendly-fire-killings-7-october/48046
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israeli-source-executed-children-lie-admits-story-was-untrue
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/ny-times-tries-cover-its-7-october-mass*removed*s-fraud
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/debunking-screams-silence-sheryl-sandbergs-7-oct-mass*removed*-film
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-general-killed-israelis-7-october-then-lied-about-it/43176
I forgot how they’ve been covering all this
Thank you.
you’re welcome! let me know if you have any specific questions
There’s a second 2025 volume of Our Narrative: Al-Aqsa Flood… Two years of steadfastness and the will to liberate not sure if publication date of Dec 24 was intentional or not, but hardly any western media attention to it because all journos had the week off.
I read them both prior to posting. They are eloquently composed and making good points. I was interested to know especially how things were considered before implementation because they are both “in conversation” with enemy propaganda as it emerged.