Gen CARMA ‘23

BTB – BEAT THE BIAS

BTB helps participants become aware of the biases in all media forms, be they written, spoken, or seen. It
is designed to help participants detect various strategies used by media organizations, and analyze stories
critically.
It consists of two phases. For Phase 1, you are assigned four articles from different sources which you have
to analyze and compile a written report on your findings. If you qualify for Phase 2, you will be assigned a
particular news agency. There will be a press conference where you, as a reporter from your news agency,
will question the speakers.

Phase 1 – Identify the Biases

Instructions
• Delegates will have to read the articles before the event
• They will present their critical analysis in a 500-700 words written report.
• Delegates are expected to analyze the articles by identifying the following:
o The biases and the implied messages in the articles
o Where an emotional appeal is used to cover up facts.
o The intended audience of the articles
o The use of language and how it impacts the message being conveyed
o Why the media organization chose to take the angle that it does take in a particular article
o What can be the hidden motives behind the stance taken by the media organization in a
particular article
o How many arguments and facts presented in the articles were valid?

Judging Criteria:
• How plausible the identified biases are.
• How thoroughly researched and well-proven the arguments presented by the delegates are
• Language and writing skills
• Timely submission of report
• Word count is within the limit (i.e. 500-700 words)

Deadline for Phase 1: Monday 06 November’23 Email to: gblsociety23@gmail.com

Phase 2 – Be Biased

Topic: “Big luxury US brand partners with Israel-based textile giant, for their clothing portfolio”

Instructions:
Each team must send two members. After the speakers have delivered their remarks at the press
conference, the reporters will be allowed to ask questions from the speakers. You are advised to carefully
select your questions as you will be observed during the press conference. You have to keep in mind the
news agency you are working for as you will also be judged on how biased you are. For example, if you
are CGTN, China’s state cable network, you will always favor the Chinese government. Afterward, you
have to write a 500-word report on the press conference, as if writing a news article for your media
organization. Unlike in Phase 1, where you had to maintain neutrality, this article must be according to the
bias of your respective news organization. You also have to share a short write-up (50-100 words)
explaining your news agency’s biases, political leanings, etc. based on which you wrote the article.

Judging Criteria:
1) Press Conference
● The creativity of the questions asked.
● The accuracy with which the delegates represent their assigned media source
● Adherence to journalism norms and ethics.
● Coherence of arguments.
2) Report
● Coherence of arguments
● Writing style
● Adherence to your news outlet’s stance
● Timely submission

Deadline for Phase 2: Thursday 06 November’23

Email to: gblsociety@gmail.com
Israel death toll reaches 700 in Hamas attacks
(Reference: https://arynews.tv/israel-death-toll-reaches-700-in-hamas-attacks/)
By News Stories Posted by ARY News Digital Team

The death toll of Israelis in Hamas attacks has climbed to 700 whereas 421 Palestinians have also
been martyred in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

As per details, the Ministry of Health said that at least 421 people have been killed and more than 2,200
wounded in Gaza.

Israeli air strikes hit housing blocks, tunnels, a mosque and homes in Gaza, killing more than 421,
including 20 children, in keeping with PM Netanyahu’s pledge of “mighty vengeance”.

In a separate development, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the US will be moving a carrier
strike group closer to Israel, which includes the Ford carrier and ships that support it.

Austin further said added that the US will provide munitions to Israel and its security assistance will begin
moving. The Pentagon also plans to add fighter jets in the region.

Palestine’s envoy to UN

Palestine’s envoy to the United Nations said that all those who believe in the UN Charter and international
law must not lose sight of the “bigger picture”

“We need to stand up for the vision enshrined in the resolution of the Security Council … and to take the
necessary measures to ensure compliance with their provisions,” Riyad Mansour said at the UN
headquarters in New York, where an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council will take place.

“Israel expects and demands political and military support, while advancing goals that are fundamentally at
odds with international legitimacy and consensus… Can those supporting Israel ignore its colonialist and
racist agenda?”

Hamas attack

Fighting between Israeli forces and the Palestinian group Hamas raged Sunday, with hundreds killed on
both sides after a surprise attack on Israel prompted Benjamin Netanyahu to warn they were “embarking
on a long and difficult war”.

The conflict’s bloodiest escalation in decades saw Hamas carry out a massive rocket barrage and ground,
air and sea offensive early Saturday.

Gun battles raged between Israeli forces and hundreds of Hamas fighters in at least 22 Israel locations,
including at least two where gunmen were holding hostages, the army said.

It later added that it had fired artillery on southern Lebanon in response to a shot from the area, without
providing further details.
“We are embarking on a long and difficult war that was forced on us by Hamas attack,” Netanyahu said on
X, formerly Twitter, early Sunday.

“The first stage is ending at this time with the destruction of the vast majority of the enemy forces that
infiltrated our territory.

“At the same time, we have begun the offensive phase, which will continue with neither limitations nor
respite until the objectives are achieved. We will restore security to the citizens of Israel and we will win.”

Its is pertinent to mention here that Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said Pakistan is deeply
concerned by the escalating hostility in the Middle East and the loss of innocent lives.

In a tweet, he said we stand in solidarity with Palestinians and call for an immediate end to the violence
and oppression by Israeli occupation forces.
What we know about the Hamas attack on Israel,
and Israel's response in Gaza
(Reference: www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-attack-hamas-what-we-know/)

The Hamas militant group attacked Israel on Saturday, Oct. 7, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to declare, "we are at war." Israel says at least 1,300 people there, most of them civilians, have
been killed since Hamas launched the coordinated, multi-fronted attack from the Gaza Strip, the
Palestinian territory it has controlled for years.

At least 29 Americans are known to be among the dead, a State Department spokesperson confirmed
Saturday, and 15 Americans remain unaccounted for, along with one U.S. permanent resident. Officials
also say a number of Americans are believed to be among those taken hostage by Hamas.

In Gaza, the Health Ministry said Sunday that Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 2,670 people and left
more than 9,600 others wounded.

The United Nations said Israel's military told it late Thursday night that everyone in northern Gaza should
evacuate to the south of the enclave within 24 hours, raising expectations that an Israeli invasion was
imminent.

Here's what we know so far.

What happened?

Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group launched an unprecedented attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday,
Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets as hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in
several locations by air, land and sea, catching the country off guard on a major holiday, Simchat Torah, a
normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll.

In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza
Strip, including Israeli towns and other communities as far as 15 miles from the Gaza border. In some
places they gunned down civilians and soldiers as Israel's military scrambled to muster a response.

Families were slaughtered in their homes and on the streets, while others were seized by Hamas as
hostages. The Israeli military said Sunday it has confirmed 155 people were taken captive by Hamas, up
from an earlier estimate of 126.

Rockets also struck Tel Aviv and other Israeli communities, slamming into homes and businesses.
Militants fired more rockets from Gaza in the days that followed, damaging a hospital in the Israeli coastal
town of Ashkelon on Sunday, senior hospital official Tal Bergman said.

More than 250 mostly young people who had been attending a music festival near Kibbutz Re'im in the
Southern Israeli desert were among the dead after Hamas militants entered the area and began firing into
the crowd. Others were apparently dragged away as hostages. Haaretz, one of Israel's largest
newspapers, described the scene as a "massacre" and a "battlefield," reporting that terrorists on
motorcycles drove into the crowd shooting.

In small Israeli communities near the Gaza border, first responders and security forces arrived to
discover evidence of atrocities: families massacred in their homes, even babies and children murdered at
the Kfar Aza kibbutz.

"We see blood spread out in homes. We've found bodies of people who have been butchered," said Israel
Defense Forces spokesperson Maj. Libby Weiss. "The depravity of it is haunting."

Hamas says it's holding "dozens" of Israeli civilians and soldiers captive in the Gaza Strip. Their capture
marks a major escalation in the fighting. President Biden confirmed Tuesday that a number of American
citizens were among those being held; he did not say exactly how many.

A Hamas military official threatened on Monday to kill the hostages it was holding if Israeli airstrikes
continue "targeting" Gaza residents without warning.

"We declare that any targeting of our people in their homes without prior warning will be regrettably faced
with the execution of one the hostages of civilians we are holding," a spokesman for Ezzedine al-Qassam
Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in an audio statement, news agencies reported.

Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan accused Hamas of "blatant, documented war crimes."

Meanwhile, Israeli social media filled up with desperate pleas for information about missing friends and
relatives and heart-wrenching tributes to loved ones, including whole families, slaughtered.

Gun battles and rocket fire continued in the days that followed in Israel. An Israeli military official told CBS
News on Monday that they had regained control of the communities around the Gaza Strip but fighting had
not ceased.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the Hamas attacks "in the strongest terms," urged
maximum restraint and stressed that violence can't solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel's response

In a televised address the night of the attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier
declared Israel to be at war, said the military would use all of its strength to destroy Hamas' capabilities.
But he warned that "this war will take time. It will be difficult."

"The enemy will pay an unprecedented price," he said, promising that Israel would "return fire of a
magnitude that the enemy has not known."

Israel's military said it was targeting command centers used by Hamas in the blockaded Gaza Strip, along
with another Iran-backed militant group, Islamic Jihad, but many civilians were among those killed.
The Israeli airstrikes in Gaza flattened residential buildings in giant explosions, including a 14-story tower
that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that he'd ordered a tightening of the Gaza blockade:
"Nothing is allowed in or out. There will be no fuel, electricity or food supplies," he said in a statement. "We
fight animals in human form and proceed accordingly."

Loudspeakers atop mosques in Gaza City blared stark warnings to residents to evacuate, and by
Thursday the U.N. said at least 338,000 Gaza residents have been displaced.

Israel appeared to be readying for a ground invasion as the weekend approached, with the United Nations
saying Israel's military told it late Thursday that everyone in northern Gaza should evacuate to the south of
the enclave within 24 hours.

A U.N. spokesperson told CBS News the world body "considers it impossible for such a movement to take
place without devastating humanitarian consequences." Israeli Ambassador Erdan dismissed the U.N.'s
response "to Israel's early warning" as "shameful" and said it ignored the brutality of the attack on Israel.

What is Hamas, and what's the Iran link?

Hamas is the Palestinian militant faction that governs the Gaza Strip, a 230-square-mile area where more
than 2 million people live. Israel and the U.S. have designated Hamas a terror organization.

Hamas is backed by Iran and gets most of its funding and support from the Iranian regime.

"What I can say, without a doubt, is that Iran is broadly complicit in these attacks," U.S. deputy national
security adviser Jon Finer said on "CBS Mornings" Monday. "Iran has been Hamas' primary backer for
decades. They have provided them weapons. They have provided them training. They have provided
them financial support. And so, in terms of broad complicity, we are very clear about a role for Iran."

Iran's Foreign Ministry on Monday denied reports that the country had a direct role in planning or carrying
out the attack, with spokesman Nasser Kanani telling reporters in Tehran that the Palestinians had "the
necessary capacity and will to defend their nation and recover their rights" without help from their primary
benefactors in Tehran.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh claimed in an address Saturday that the fight would expand to the Israeli-
occupied West Bank, and to Jerusalem, Reuters reported.

"How many times have we warned you that the Palestinian people have been living in refugee camps for
75 years, and you refuse to recognize the rights of our people?" Reuters quoted Haniyeh as saying.

Hamas calls for Israel's destruction and has opposed past efforts at Israeli-Palestinian peace accords,
using tactics including suicide bombings to attack the Jewish state.

Israel has maintained a blockade of Gaza since Hamas took control of the territory in 2007. The blockade,
which restricts the movement of people and goods in and out of the enclave, has devastated the
Palestinian territory's economy. Israel has defended the blockade as necessary to keep militants in Gaza
from stockpiling weapons — though Hamas clearly managed to obtain an arsenal of rockets and other
weaponry despite the restrictions.

Over the years, fighting has flared up repeatedly between Israel and Hamas and other militant groups
based in Gaza, including the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad.

What have U.S. leaders said in response to the attack?

Officials across the U.S. responded quickly to condemn the Hamas attack.

"The people of Israel are under attack, orchestrated by a terrorist organization, Hamas," President Biden
said Saturday in brief remarks at the White House. "I want to say to them and to the world, and to terrorists
everywhere, that the United States stands with Israel."

The president said he was in contact with King Abdullah II of Jordan about the situation, along with U.S.
congressional leaders. He said he'd directed his team to maintain contact with "leaders throughout the
region."

"We'll make sure that they [Israel] have the help their citizens need, and they can continue to defend
themselves," Mr. Biden added.

On Tuesday, he spoke again from the White House and called the attacks "pure, unadulterated evil" at the
"bloody hands" of Hamas.

"In this moment, we must be crystal clear: We stand with Israel. We stand with Israel," he said. "And we
will make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, to defend itself and to respond to this
attack."

Mr. Biden said he would meet Friday with the families of some of the Americans believed to be held
hostage by Hamas.

"I think they have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about what's
happened to them — deeply," Mr. Biden told CBS News' Scott Pelley. "We have to communicate to the
world this is critical. This is not even human behavior. It's pure barbarism. And we're going to do
everything in our power to get them home if we can find them." [Watch more of the interview this Sunday
on 60 Minutes.]

Leaders in New York, New Jersey and other communities across the U.S. condemned the attacks. New
York City Mayor Eric Adams, whose city is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel, called the
attack a "cowardly action by a terrorist organization."

Adams said city authorities are monitoring the situation for any possible threats to the local community.

"While there is no credible threat to New York City at this time, our administration is in touch with Jewish
leaders across the five boroughs, and we have directed the NYPD to deploy additional resources to
Jewish communities and houses of worship citywide to ensure that our communities have the resources
they need to make sure everyone feels safe," Adams said in a statement.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed Sunday that the U.S. would be "rapidly providing the Israel
Defense Forces with additional equipment and resources, including munitions."

Austin said he had directed the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the eastern Mediterranean,
which includes an aircraft carrier and the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Normandy.

Israel is manufacturing a case for genocide

(Reference: www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/10/12/israel-is-manufacturing-a-case-for-genocide)

Israeli and American officials, like many of their supporters, have called the Hamas incursion on Saturday
“Israel’s 9/11”, drawing parallels between Hamas and al-Qaeda and between Israel and the United States.

“If the United States experienced what Israel is experiencing,” President Joe Biden said, “our response
would be swift, decisive and overwhelming.” The “brutality” and “the bloodthirstiness” of Hamas, he
added, “brings to mind the worst rampages of ISIS”. He even repeated the sensationalist
and unsubstantiated claims that Hamas fighters had “raped women” and “beheaded babies”.

Major European capitals reinforced the false analogy of 9/11 and the dangerous notion of “us vs them” by
draping their most iconic buildings in Israeli flags as if to declare “they are all Israelis” just like they
declared – with disastrous consequences – that “they are all Americans” after the 9/11 attacks on New
York and Washington, DC.

Like a well-rehearsed orchestra, Western powers condemned the “unprovoked” attacks on civilians and
voiced their unconditional support for the fanatical Israeli government to do whatever it takes as long as it
takes to “defend” its people against “evil”.

The degree of hysteria and the hypocrisy are as mind-boggling, as they are reckless.

Some of the images from Israel are no doubt gruesome – but the images from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria,
Yemen, Libya, etc have been no less horrific. Two decades of Western and Israeli wars in the Middle East
have led to not thousands, but millions of Arab and Palestinian casualties

In the eyes of the West, it seems, Israel has a “duty” to defend its people, but the Palestinians don’t have
the right to protect themselves as if they are people of a lesser god! Israel seemingly also has a right to
defend and even expand its occupation and apartheid regime, but the Palestinians have no right to
express their frustration or struggle for freedom and justice after seven decades of dispossession,
oppression and siege.

For European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, “Russia’s attacks against civilian
infrastructure, especially electricity, are war crimes. Cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity
… are acts of pure terror.” But Israel doing the same against Palestinians in Gaza is legitimate self-
defense! That’s the very embodiment of hypocrisy and double standard.
To be clear, Hamas is an Islamist group that has routinely used and is still using controversial and
unsavory methods to further its agenda. But like other anti-colonial movements that employed
questionable methods, it is first and foremost, a nationalist movement that long condemned al-Qaeda and
ISIL, and never staged an attack outside historical Palestine. Unlike al-Qaeda, Hamas has won a majority
in parliament in Gaza’s last legislative elections in 2006, and – after surviving an American orchestrated
coup – it has acted as the de facto government of the besieged strip.

Above all else, the hysterical comparisons between Hamas’s operation on Saturday and 9/11 are reckless
and utterly dangerous, for they serve to manufacture the case for a wider war, as we witnessed before the
invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq on false pretenses. Such comparisons help demonize
Palestinian leaders and dehumanize Palestinian people, paving the way for a genocidal war, starting in
Gaza. To be sure, demonizing other leaders is ugly politics, but dehumanizing a whole people is racism,
pure and simple.

In that way, this false and hysterical analogy amounts to a green light for Israel to follow up its unlawful
siege and indiscriminate bombardment of the Gaza Strip with an even more horrifying land invasion that
would devastate the more than two million Palestinians living there.

Indeed, after failing to diminish Hamas with four wars and a 17-year-long siege, the Israeli government
now seems determined to annihilate Hamas, both politically and militarily, through an invasion and
reoccupation of Gaza.

For that purpose, it has already recalled some 350,000 military reservists and amassed 100,000 soldiers
as well as a number of tanks on its southern border. Meanwhile, the attempts to create a humanitarian
corridor to ship people from Gaza into the Sinai to keep them “safe” and to make it easier for Israel to
invade are bound to be rejected by Palestinian and Arab leaders alike as no more than a pretext to expel
Palestinians from their homeland, again.

The anticipated ground invasion of densely populated Gaza with no escape routes provided for the people
who live there, is bound to cause tens or hundreds of thousands of casualties among Palestinians over
weeks or months of fighting, especially if, as expected, Israel uses heavy weapons and severe
bombardment to try to reduce casualties among its own forces. Indeed, Israel’s looming invasion of Gaza
is bound to turn into the most bloody urban conflict since the Second World War – an armageddon with
disastrous regional implications.

Even if Israel successfully reoccupies the Gaza Strip, albeit at a high cost, and dismantles the military and
administrative infrastructure of Hamas, what then? Will it simply hand it over to the Palestinian Authority in
Ramallah after Israelis paid a high price for taking it over, as it did in the past? Will it hold the Gaza Strip
permanently, providing food and services to its inhabitants? Will it be able to end the idea of Hamas as a
resistance movement against occupation?

Israel does not seem to have any answers to these thorny questions about “the day after”. Indeed, there is
no telling what will happen after such a genocidal invasion and occupation in Gaza, Palestine, or the
region in general.

There are already signs of the war spilling over to the north and east, forcing, or rather allowing, Israel to
widen its circle of destruction. This could easily lead to the United States and its newly deployed naval
armadas being drawn into yet another destructive regional war as if two decades of forever wars were not
enough.

Israel and the United States must not repeat the same blunders again and again as if they learned nothing
from decades of war, occupation, and human suffering caused by their bungles. It is high time for Western
powers to start acting like grown-ups and stop parroting Israel’s debunked lies and cliches. Make no
mistake, there is no military answer for the Palestine tragedy, only a political and diplomatic solution.

Israel-Hamas war: what has happened and

what has caused the conflict?
(Reference: www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/08/israel-hamas-gaza-palestinian-territories)

Offensive launched from Gaza represents large failure of Israeli intelligence and is likely to have long-
lasting repercussions

What happened on the border between Israel and Gaza on Saturday?

Shocked Israelis woke on the last day of the Jewish high holidays to the wail of sirens as Hamas and
Islamic Jihad fired thousands of rockets from Gaza and armed militants broke down the hi-tech barriers
surrounding the strip to enter Israel, shooting and taking hostages. Militants in boats also tried to enter
Israel by sea.

It was a staggering and unprecedented offensive by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and a
catastrophic intelligence failure by Israel – and both will have long-lasting repercussions and
consequences. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, declared that Israel was at war and that
Palestinians would pay a heavy price.

Militants infiltrated Jewish communities near the border with Gaza, killing and seizing civilians and
soldiers. Unverified videos showed terrified Israelis covered in blood, and with hands tied behind their
backs, being taken by Palestinian gunmen. Many people rushed to safe rooms in their homes as the
carnage unfolded around them.

Hundreds of young people at an all-night dance festival in southern Israel found themselves under fire.
“They were going tree by tree and shooting. Everywhere. From two sides. I saw people were dying all
around,” said one survivor. Authorities later said that 260 bodies had been recovered.

By nightfall on Saturday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) estimated there were still 200-300 Palestinian
militants inside Israel. There were eight “points of engagement” where the IDF was trying to regain control
from militants.
How did Israel respond?

Israel called up army reservists and launched a wave of airstrikes on the tiny strip, which is home to 2.3
million people. Netanyahu warned Palestinians in Gaza to “get out of there now” as he vowed to
reduce Hamas hideouts to “rubble”, but there is nowhere for those in the blockaded territory to escape to.

Warplanes targeted several buildings in the centre of Gaza City, including Palestine Tower, an 11-storey
building that houses Hamas radio stations.

Israel has indicated it may launch a ground invasion, although this would carry huge risks both for IDF
troops and for Israeli hostages being held in the territory.

Israel has cut off electricity and fuel supplies to Gaza, which may soon affect the strip’s medical facilities
that are already under extreme pressure from people injured in the bombardment.

Video recorded in Gaza showed a mosque destroyed in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, and
several large buildings in Gaza City in ruins.

Palestinians in Gaza shared images of text messages sent by the Israeli military to people in the Beit
Hanoun area in the north of the strip that ordered them to leave their homes before the airstrikes.

How many people have been killed and injured? And how many Israelis have been taken hostage?

At least 700 Israelis were killed and about 2,000 people were being treated in hospitals – 19 of them in
critical condition – according to reports on Sunday.

The IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said more than 400 Palestinian militants had been killed in southern
Israel and the Gaza Strip, and dozens more had been captured.

The Palestinian health ministry said that at least 400 Palestinians had been killed, including 20 children,
and nearly 2,000 wounded as a result of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza since Saturday. Seven people were also
killed by Israeli army fire in the West Bank, including a child, it said.

Hamas has reportedly taken as many as 100 Israelis hostage – both soldiers and civilians, alive and dead.

Why did Hamas and Islamic Jihad launch the attack?

The exact reasons for the attack are not clear, but there has been growing violence for months between
Israeli soldiers and settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank. Armed settlers have attacked Palestinian
villages; militants in the West Bank have attacked soldiers and settlers, and there have been repeated IDF
raids on Palestinian cities.

During the past week, some Jews have prayed inside the compound of al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s
Old City. The area around the mosque is known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and is the third holiest
place for Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. To Jews, it is known as Temple Mount, and is
venerated as the site of the biblical Jewish temple. Jews are not permitted to pray inside al-Aqsa
compound; to do so is highly provocative. Hamas has called its current offensive Operation al-Aqsa
Deluge.

The longer backdrop is a 16-year blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt that has almost destroyed the
strip’s internal economy and has caused hardship for the people living there.

Extreme religious nationalists who are part of Israel’s rightwing coalition government have repeatedly
called for the annexation of Palestinian territory. There has also been speculation that the offensive could
have been encouraged by Iran as a means of scuppering moves by Saudi Arabia to normalise relations
with Israel.

Why did the attack take Israel by surprise?

Hamas must have planned this offensive for many months, and it is a mystery why Israeli intelligence
appears to have had no idea it was coming.

Israel’s surveillance of Gaza is intense. It monitors activity, communications and daily life via state-of-the-
art surveillance equipment, including drones flying over the strip. It also relies on human intelligence via
informants, many of whom are blackmailed or otherwise coerced into assisting Israel.

The intelligence failure is monumental, and will shake the Israeli public’s faith in their government and
army’s ability to protect civilians.

“All of Israel is asking itself: where is the IDF, where are the police, where is the security?” said Eli Maron,
a former head of the Israeli navy, on Channel 12. “It’s a colossal failure; the [defence] establishments have
simply failed, with vast consequences.”

What does Hamas hope to gain?

The militant organisation that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 has shown the world that it is a force to
be reckoned with, but it is hard to see how there can be a positive outcome for Hamas or Gaza from the
events this weekend.

Israel is likely to use the full force of its military might to crush militant activity, not just in Gaza but also the
West Bank and East Jerusalem. In the process, a huge number of Palestinian civilians are likely to be
killed, and homes and infrastructure destroyed.

The hostage-taking will also complicate Israel’s response and gives Hamas a significant bargaining chip.
Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held in Gaza by Hamas for five years, was finally released in 2011 in
exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

If Iran is involved, it will hope the violence will scupper any deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.