Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Palestine
Israel's renowned Iron Dome was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of Hamas rockets launched from Gaza, which were on a scale no defence system in the world could have dealt with, military analysts have told The National.
An estimated 3,000 rockets were fired, leaving hundreds dead and thousands injured.
Combined with a lack of intelligence and shortage of staff, the inability of the Iron Dome to deal with Hamas's attack strategy left Israel vulnerable.
Although regarded as the world’s leading defensive system, with only 20 rockets in four launchers per battery it would have rapidly exhausted its stockpile during Saturday's strike, with reloading taking some time.
The Iron Dome, which has an estimated 11 batteries, is also designed to prioritise the most threatening missiles – such as ICBM or cruise – over smaller rockets or the microlights used by Hamas.
“This very well co-ordinated attack meant that rather than 10 or 20 rockets being launched from one place into Israeli airspace, this was happening from multiple angles, which makes air defence really hard,” said Sam Cranny-Evans of the Royal United Services Institute think tank.
That it was a Saturday amid the Jewish celebration of Simchat Torah meant even fewer troops were on duty, leading to a slower response time, he added.
The Israeli drones over Gaza, that send co-ordinate targets of Hamas launch sites back to the artillery and air force, would also have been swamped be the sheer volume of the attack.
“It was definitively a surprise but it was also overwhelming, achieving quite a shock effect,” said Mr Cranny-Evans.
“The sheer scale of what was happening overwhelmed their decision-making ability and their ability to understand it.”
Brig Ben Barry, of the International Institute of Strategic Studies think tank, said that for the Iron Dome there was “a finite limit to its capacities to knock stuff out of the sky”.
“With thousands of rockets in the air in a very short period of time there is not a single air defence system in the world that's going to be able to cope with that," he said.
By comparison, Russia’s biggest attacks on Ukraine with cruise missiles, rockets and drones amount to about 100 projectiles enabling the defenders to shoot down the vast majority.
Brig Barry, an urban warfare specialist, suggested the intricate Israeli eavesdropping devices and sensors along its 65km barrier may not have failed but were instead also overwhelmed.
“It may be that the Israelis were not present on the fence or in their fortified camps in sufficient strength, and their quick reaction forces couldn't get there quickly enough,” he said.
“The fence is a linear defence and you can have all the sensors and surveillance technology you want but if you can't react to an attempted breach quickly enough, it is redundant.”
At the same time as its rocket attack, Hamas launched a land, air and sea invasion, which temporarily proved too much for Israeli defences.
“Hamas performed exceptionally well in all aspects of their planning, intelligence gathering and execution,” said Michael Stevens, a leading British authority on the Middle East.
“It was a well masterminded but extremely brutal attack.”
Israel’s autonomous heavy-machinegun towers, designed to open fire on border incursions automatically, were also targeted by Hamas drones dropping grenades in a similar tactic used by Ukraine on Russian tanks.
A source connected to Israeli intelligence told The National that Hamas had also allegedly “deliberately created tension” in the West Bank town of Huwara to draw troops from guarding the Gaza Strip.
“This resulted in some troops being moved from what was perceived as a quiet front that meant that of three battalions that normally surround Gaza, only one was present and the other two were in Huwara,” the source said.
Mr Stevens said that violence in the occupied West Bank forced Israel to “divert resources of several battalions away from Gaza that should have been in Gaza”.
He also suggested the catastrophic intelligence failure was a result of Israel’s current political infighting that had affected its security agencies.
“There has been increasing competition inside security ministries for roles and access to certain positions that are now been dominated by political players,” he said.
“Israeli [intelligence] has dropped a little bit qualitatively as a result of its domestic political failings.”
Meanwhile, Danny Yatom, the former head of Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel, said "everything" went wrong in dealing with Hamas’s attack.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Yatom said not enough forces were deployed due to a failure of intelligence, which came on top of years of policies that had allowed Hamas to galvanise.
“Nobody had any clue that on 6.30am on Saturday, 50 years and one day after the total surprise that we were caught under in the Yom Kippur War, we would witness it again,” he said.
SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%202-litre%20direct%20injection%20turbo%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%207-speed%20automatic%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20261hp%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20400Nm%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20From%20Dh134%2C999%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
Monster
Directed by: Anthony Mandler
Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr., John David Washington
3/5
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
The%20Roundup
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Lee%20Sang-yong%3Cbr%3EStars%3A%20Ma%20Dong-seok%2C%20Sukku%20Son%2C%20Choi%20Gwi-hwa%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre, six-cylinder
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 395bhp
Torque: 420Nm
Price: from Dh321,200
On sale: now
MATCH INFO
Schalke 0
Werder Bremen 1 (Bittencourt 32')
Man of the match Leonardo Bittencourt (Werder Bremen)
RESULTS
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 Group 1 (PA) Dh119,373 (Dirt) 1,600m
Winner: Brraq, Adrie de Vries (jockey), Jean-Claude Pecout (trainer)
7.05pm: Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Taamol, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (Turf) 1,800m
Winner: Eqtiraan, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
8.15pm: UAE 1000 Guineas Trial (TB) Dh183,650 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Soft Whisper, Pat Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor.
9.50pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Hypothetical, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer.
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,000m
Winner: Etisalat, Sando Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
'Dark Waters'
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, William Jackson Harper
Rating: ****
What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
The specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: nine-speed
Power: 542bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh848,000
On sale: now
OPINIONS ON PALESTINE & ISRAEL
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
