How Hamas’ Oct 7 bloodbath plot eluded Israeli spies & sparked year of bloodshed – as war rages on, what happens next?

HAMAS' horror October 7 massacre plot escaped Israeli spies in a catastrophic security failure that sparked a year of unprecedented chaos, experts say.

It was the catalyst that plunged four nations - Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Iran - into war, killing tens of thousands and marking a historic shift in the Middle East.

Experts have branded the spiralling situation in the Middle East as "one of the biggest human rights crises in the world right now" - triggered by the October 7 atrocity.

Bruce Riedel, who spent 30 years in the CIA including a stint in Israel at the Tel Aviv embassy, said Israel is now "fighting a war on multiple fronts".

"We've never seen anything like this in Israeli history," he said.

Since October 7, Israel's archenemy Iran has used its terror proxies to do its dirty work.

Hezbollah has fired rockets from Lebanon in solidarity with Hamas, while the Houthis in Yemen have terrorised the Red Sea by attacking any ships they deem to be connected with Israel.

Israel is also still razing much of Gaza as its troops look to wipe out Hamas and rescue hostages still being held by Hamas thugs a year on.

Another front has also opened in Lebanon after Israeli troops and tanks last week poured over the border on a mission to wipe out Hezbollah's war machine.

And last week, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tehran "will pay" after making the "big mistake" of unleashing 181 missiles at Israel on Tuesday night.

He met with his war cabinet in a secret underground bunker to map out the blueprints of a devastating revenge attack on Iran.

Netanyahu's response to Iran's blitz could target oil production facilities or even its nuclear bases in a final blow to the tyrannical regime.

But experts believe this all could have been avoided if the October 7 attack had been foiled before it could happen.

Professor Riedel, who also served as a White House advisor, said: "Israel suffered a bigger defeat last October than it ever has before.

"The attack was on Israeli homes and villages and towns and bases. Israeli civilians, over a thousand, were killed and hundreds were taken hostage. This was unprecedented.

"And in the months since, thousands of people who live near Gaza and thousands of people who live near the Lebanese border have left their homes, which again is unprecedented."

Kristyan Benedict, Crisis Response Manager for Amnesty International UK, told The Sun: “Gaza is one of the most under surveillance areas in the world.

"There are multiple layers of security barriers between Gaza and Israel. There's 24/7 monitoring. There are human intelligence sources inside Gaza. 

"So you'd have to say there's a catastrophic security failure that has happened.

"Senior Israeli security officials, current serving officials, previous officials and intelligence officials have already said that on the record, and that there needs to be some form of public inquiry."

Noy Leyb, an IDF Special Forces reservist who has spent more than six months on the frontline in Gaza and on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, told The Sun: "I just can't believe that we're still in this situation.

"I can't believe that the hostages still haven't come back.

"This is our reality every single day. We're not only facing the war here inside of Israel, we're facing the war outside of Israel."

CATASTROPHIC SECURITY FAILURE

On October 7, 2023, some 1,175 civilians, soldiers and foreign nationals inside Israel were savagely murdered in a hideous early-morning assault.

Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel from Gaza, firing thousands of rockets, flying over in paragliders and bulldozing through in trucks in over 100 different places across the border.

Just weeks ago an IDF report found that 6,000 fighters from Gaza managed to get into Israel that day - including 3,800 from the Hamas terror group’s elite Nukhba forces.

Horrifying reports that followed October 7 revealed children were killed, women were raped and around 250 had been kidnapped and taken back to Gaza.

It was described by many, including US President Joe Biden, as "the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust".

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu declared "we are at war" following the ambush - and said the military would "turn Gaza into a deserted island" and urged its residents to "leave now".

The horrors of October 7 sparked the 12-month conflict - still raging in the Middle East as the IDF attempts to obliterate Hamas.

Netanyahu has rejected calls - including from his own government - for an investigation into the security failings that led to October 7 - saying he wants to win the war first.

Professor Riedel said: “There certainly was from everything we know, a lot of warning indicators that the Israeli intelligence community, or at least parts of it, were very concerned. 

“But the Israeli government itself doesn't seem to have taken it very seriously.

"That is a perennial problem for intelligence agencies. In this case, it led to a disaster."

Speaking about a public inquiry into the security failings on October 7, Kristyan said: "That should happen, given the scale of killing against Israelis, the hostage taking, the people who have been injured, people who have been displaced.

"The Israeli government owes it to their citizens to ensure there's proper transparency and accountability for what looks like a massive security failure.

"There is a sort of review going on across all relevant security, military, political aspects of the Israeli government."

An investigation by the New York Times revealed that documents, emails and interviews show Israel was aware of Hamas' plan for October 7 over a year before it happened.

Military and intelligence top brass dismissed the plans as aspirational, believing it was too hard for Hamas to carry out.

The newspaper saw a 40-page document which outlined a step-by-step plan of the kind of invasion that would later kill more than 1,000 people.

Israel's domestic intelligence unit Shin Bet reportedly discussed a possible threat to the Nova festival hours before Hamas hit on October 7 - but festival officials were not warned, Haaretz reports.

Egypt - previously a mediator between Hamas and Israel - said it repeatedly warned the Israeli government that the terror group was planning "something big" before October 7.

Chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul said: "We know that Egypt has warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen."

In the year before the attack Hamas posted videos online of its terrorists gearing up to attack Israel, completing drills and even using paragliders, CNN reports.

A YEAR OF BLOODSHED

Speaking about the last 12 months, Professor Riedel said: "We have a war that's been going on for a year.

"The price Israel is paying is very, very high. The price the region is paying is very, very high.

"The Gaza front, the Lebanon border front, taking attacks from groups in Syria and Iraq, and even now, attacks from Yemen on shipping in the Red Sea."

The Middle East expert pointed to how 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war exploded last year, according to figures by the Health Ministry in Gaza and Amnesty International.

But Israel contests the figures because of Hamas' authority in the Strip. No external international body has been allowed to go in and verify the numbers.

Professor Riedel believes the recent escalation in Lebanon following Israel's attacks on the Hezbollah pagers means any "chances of a ceasefire now have significantly gone down".

Israel detonated Hezbollah's pagers, walkie-talkies and other electronic devices in a brazen attack on the terror group in Lebanon last month.

The pager attack killed 37 Hezbollah terrorists & injured 3,600 more in a deadly blitz as Israel destroys Iran's "ring of fire".

Hezbollah responded by launching rockets into northern Israel, and the IDF launched a barrage of airstrikes above the country.

Netanyahu, echoing his statements in October, warned the people of Lebanon to flee.

Kristyan said: “This is one of the biggest human rights crises in the world right now.

“We were at Amnesty already working on Israel-Palestine at an extremely high level before October... and certainly at a much more intense level since last October.

“The escalation was horrific."

He revealed that officials in the UK government have told Amnesty International that Israel's goal of obliterating Hamas entirely is not possible.

"The stated objective is not achievable of destroying Hamas and the current UK government, senior officials would say the same thing," he said.

"They've said that to us in meetings months ago, it's not achievable."

More than 100 people kidnapped from Israel on October 7 are still being held captive in Gaza as their families push Netanyahu's government for a ceasefire and hostage negotiation deal.

Kristyan said: "101 people right now, Israelis and foreign nationals who are being held as hostages.

"They should be released. It's a war crime to take them, to hold them, to torture them.

"That's why we get back to the absolute necessity and echoing what tens of thousands of Israelis are saying inside Israel. There needs to be a deal."

Noy, 33, has spent some six months in Gaza and in northern Israel on the border with Lebanon - where Hezbollah is based - since October 7.

One of his friends in the army was called up to go to a border kibbutz that morning and as he drove there with his girlfriend they were both shot dead by terrorists from point-blank range.

He said: "I have friends who were injured. I have friends who were killed, whether it happened on the 7th, whether it happened basically meters away from us in Gaza when we were fighting.

"In between the rounds of Gaza, you know, you'd go in for two, three weeks, you'd get out for a day or two and you'd go in for two, three weeks again.

"Those 24 to 48 hours were meant for breathing and relaxing. And a lot of times, instead of being with your family, you'd have to go to a funeral.

"I just can't believe that we're still in this situation. I can't believe that the hostages still haven't come back.

"This is our reality every single day. We're not only facing the war here inside of Israel, we're facing the war outside of Israel."

THE FUTURE OF GAZA

Throughout a year of war in Gaza, Israeli officials have failed to give a concrete answer or plan for post-war life in the territory.

More than two million Palestinians have been displaced and much of the enclave has been destroyed, leaving behind a potentially decades-long reparation process for when the fighting eventually ends.

Asked about its future in May, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: "Since October, I have been raising this issue consistently in the Cabinet, and have received no response."

Some of the more hardline right-wing politicians in the Israeli government have expressed a belief that Israel should resettle in the enclave after protesting a decision in 2005 to pull out IDF troops and some 8,000 Israeli settlers.

Netanyahu has only said that Israel will not allow Hamas, nor the Palestinian Authority, to run the Strip after the war.

He has also said Israel will maintain "full security control" - but not specified how.

Speaking about the future of war, Leyb said: "No one wants to take over Gaza besides a few people in the government and a few crazy people here in Israel.

"That is how a very, very, very small percentage of people look at the Gaza Strip.

"I can tell you, I'm in an elite special forces unit. We don't really even like to joke about wanting to take over Gaza. We don't want to.

"We don't want to annihilate the Palestinians. We want to live our lives and have them live their lives. That's the most important thing."

But he claimed: "I don't believe that we can put full trust in the Palestinians to have their own state side by side and not attack us.

"If we're able to destroy all of the Hamas leaders, then if we're able to come in and govern Gaza, like our part will be security and have some sort of third party come in and raise people not to hate, raise people to live a life that's free from terror."