Israel's 9-11

Saturday marked one of the darkest days in Israel's 75-year history, as the Islamist militant group Hamas launched a deadly surprise blitz, targeting civilians and soldiers alike.  The attack began early Saturday, with Hamas firing rockets into Israel-- An IDF spokesperson said Hamas fighters had infiltrated from "land, sea and air," per The Times of Israel. Videos showed Hamas fighters landing in Israel using motorized paragliders and Hamas later published video footage of their fighters training on the paragliders.  Assailants were still wreaking havoc on Israeli soil more than a day later. As of Sunday afternoon thousands had been wounded, at least 350 people had been killed in Israel and "dozens" of civilians and soldiers had been taken hostage.

 Attacks, including one that sent concertgoers running for their lives, were caught on camera. One video showed an Israeli woman being kidnapped, hoisted onto the back of a motorcycle and driven away as her boyfriend was also abducted. Another showed the motionless body of a German-Israeli woman, identified by her dreadlocks and tattoos, being paraded through Gaza as onlookers shout "Allahu Akbar." One person was seen spitting on her head as the car drives off. 

 Israel has responded with airstrikes targeting Hamas. Inside Gaza, at least 313 Palestinians have died and more than 1,900 were wounded, the Palestinian health ministry said.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the country will "take mighty vengeance." The top IDF official in charge of activities in the Palestinian territories said Hamas had "opened the gates of hell." What the exact response looks like remains to be seen, but a military spokesman's comments hinted that Israel may try to take full control of Gaza for the first time since it unilaterally withdrew from the territory in 2005. 

 Whether by design or by chance, Saturday's attack began 50 years and one day after another incursion Israel failed to predict, what's known in Israel as the Yom Kippur war. Israel has since spent billions of dollars to create one of the world's most formidable security services, and yet it is today still grappling with the kind of infiltration of military bases, towns and kibbutzim that marked its 1948 war of independence.