A Minefield of Critical Questions Remains After Hamas’s Stunning Attack on Israel

Oct 9, 2023

Also published in Messenger
Israeli Iron Dome missiles intercept rockets fired into Israel from Gaza by Hamas in October 2023 - source: Reuters
About the Authors
Simon Henderson
Simon Henderson

Simon Henderson is the Baker Senior Fellow and director of the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at The Washington Institute, specializing in energy matters and the conservative Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

Articles & Testimony

As the IDF deals with residual infiltrators in the south, it is already clear that the lessons of the surprise 1973 war need updating.

We are witnessing another Middle East war—not just “yet another Middle East clash” between Israel and Palestinian Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip, but a different Middle East war, which, at this stage, could widen into a regional conflict. As if events on the ground have not made that clear enough, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accentuated the point when he declared in an address to the nation: “Citizens of Israel, we are at war. Not an operation, not a round [of escalation], at war!” The uncertainty about a widening conflict is a consequence of the complete surprise that the Hamas fighters achieved in their early-morning assaults across the border with Israel...

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Arab-Israeli Relations

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Israel Palestinians