An intriguing book about "The Fall of the Gaza Brigade" in the occupation army during the attack on October

A book titled "The Fall of the Gaza Brigade" by Israeli author Ilan Kfir sheds light on intriguing details regarding the attack carried out by the Al-Qassam Brigades and Palestinian resistance factions on military sites surrounding the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.

The book, translated by Hebrew journalism specialist Moamen Muqaddad, states that "the concept always carries a negative connotation; the concept led to the significant intelligence failure on October 6, 1973, and no one believed, exactly fifty years and one day later, that the same concept would lead to an even greater failure on October 7, 2023. This failure will be recorded in history as one of the gravest national disasters that Israel has ever known."

Brigadier General (Res.) Matan Sgaf, who served in military intelligence, says: "I did not expect to see a scene like this again; it seemed as if fate was repeating itself – just as in the surprise attack of 1973, no one believed that something like this could happen on October 7, 2023, neither the government, nor my family, nor I. The great disaster was that the concept defeated us once again."

According to the book, "in the Yom Kippur War, there was a failure in intelligence agencies, and now there is also a failure in the army, the government, and even at the political level."

It points out that "the concept that prevailed within the General Staff, within the political leadership, and sometimes even among the soldiers themselves – made everyone act with excessive confidence, and all of this ended in a terrible collapse."

It continues: "Thus, the scenario of the previous war was repeated, but in a different way; the new concept developed over the past few years, when Israel believed that thanks to strong deterrence and an advanced defense system – especially the 'economy of calm' strategy – it could control Gaza."

It added: "But Hamas exploited the calm and prepared leisurely for the day of the attack," noting that "since the Guardian of the Walls operation in May 2021, when Hamas launched thousands of rockets towards Israel, Yahya Sinwar had already demonstrated the new pattern of confrontation."

It clarified that "by the end of the war, Sinwar became the Palestinian symbol of victory over Israel, while the Israeli army was still preparing plans for a large military operation, the political leadership was only seeking calm, not political dialogue or achieving real deterrence."

It mentioned that Sinwar exploited this impression of deterrence and built upon it a comprehensive strategic attack plan, adding that "if the attack had not been carried out, this concept might have been considered a security success, but the Saturday that changed the face of Gaza and Israel forever revealed that the chosen path, the path of containment instead of confrontation, paved the way for the great disaster since the 'Protective Edge' war in 2014: a surprise attack, wide-ranging, and more coordinated than ever."

The book states that "until 06:30 on October 7, 2023, that cursed Saturday, the black Saturday, the sirens sounded this time longer than ever before, and the barrage of mortars and rockets was unprecedentedly intense," according to the author's expression.

It continued: "It was not just a sprinkle, nor was it a major bombardment opening another round of fighting in the south; it was a real rocket flood, marking a massive arsenal of fire and steel at the same moment across the entire western area," adding that "thousands of mortars and long-range rockets sounded alarms everywhere, from the south to the center, while the 'Iron Dome' struggled to cope with the volume of the rocket deluge."

It noted that "hundreds of thousands rushed to shelters. In the border settlements, in the bases, and in army camps in the south, and even in the Gush Dan area, about 80 kilometers north of there."

It continued: "No one imagined that in those very minutes, a human wave would join the wave coming from the sky, thousands of armed Hamas members quickly approaching the barrier that separates the border from the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza, on trucks and motorcycles, shouting 'Allahu Akbar' and determined to reach the targets assigned to them in the final briefing, just before launching into battle."

The book also states: "Whoever coined the expression (Lech La'aza) did not mean anything good; it was a curse, there is no more cursed spot than the narrow strip that no one in the world wants, neither it nor its millions of inhabitants, even President Sadat, who demanded the full return of Sinai, preferred at the Camp David