Attacks from air, sea and land. Civilians are shot, hostages are taken, families are forced to barricade themselves, fearing for their lives. The day, which began with the sound of air raid sirens, turned by noon into one of the worst attacks Israel has seen in its 75 years of existence, according to CNN.

Militants of the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the impoverished Gaza Strip, killed hundreds of people and wounded hundreds more by nightfall.

Surprise attack: While terror attacks are nothing new in Israel, Saturday’s attack was unprecedented, not least because of the lack of warning.

Israel’s military woke up to a surprise Saturday morning, despite the country having been a technological powerhouse for decades, boasting one of the world’s most impressive armed forces and a top-ranking intelligence agency.

How was a terrorist group from one of the world’s poorest enclaves able to carry out such a devastating attack?

Heavy investment in defense: Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, it has spent billions of dollars on border defenses. To stop the missile attacks, Israel used the effective Iron Dome missile defense system developed with the help of the United States.

Israel has also spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a smart border system with sensors and underground walls, which is due to be completed in late 2021.

Israel also has one of the most extensive and well-funded intelligence services in the Middle East and the world.

But neither the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence, nor the Mossad, the foreign spy agency, nor the entire Israel Defense Forces could prevent the catastrophe that came from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli intelligence has operatives in Palestinian militant groups, as well as in Lebanon or Syria. In the past, Israeli forces could destroy Palestinian movements using drones or even cell phones. However, Hamas has now managed to penetrate the cities of southern Israel by all means: by land, by breaking through barbed wire, by sea and from the air with the help of paragliders.

To prepare for such a large-scale attack, with thousands of rockets fired at Israel, Hamas members would have had to have an extraordinary level of operational security, analysts say.

So far, Israeli officials have said little. They also did not release figures on how many of the more than 2,000 rockets fired by Hamas militants were intercepted. The Israeli military has repeatedly sidestepped the main question: Are Saturday’s events an intelligence failure?

Army spokesman Richard Hecht told CNN that Israel is now focusing on protecting civilian lives: “We’ll talk later about what happened from an intelligence perspective.”

“The whole system failed. It’s not just a component. It is obvious that the entire defensive architecture has failed to provide the necessary protection to Israeli civilians. This is a Pearl Harbor moment for Israel, where until today there was one reality, and after today there will be another reality,” said Jonathan Conricus, a former spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces.

Chuck Freilich, the former deputy national security adviser, believes that the blame for the unprecedented military offensive by Hamas militants will ultimately fall on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because of a certain disunity among the Israeli military and intelligence services: “It is clear that we caught completely unprepared.” (Sources: CNN, BBC, Politico)

• Events on the surprise war of Hamas against Israel, LIVETEXT on HotNews.ro