It was a day that shattered Israel’s sense of its own invincibility and military might, undermining the security felt by every one of its citizens.
But it did not seem so extraordinary at the start.
When I saw the early morning “red alerts” on my phone warning of incoming rocket fire from Gaza, we had no idea of the scale of the assault. I messaged my colleagues – some of whom were away for the end of the Jewish holidays – to say that I would head to the office.
Soon I was struggling to absorb the impact of what I was saying on-air, even as the words left my mouth.
The intense missile fire which had me running in and out of the office air raid shelter turned out to be a cover for an unprecedented, complex, long-planned series of attacks.
We saw shocking images of Hamas fighters riding motorbikes through holes cut in Gaza’s perimeter fence, paragliding into southern Israel, storming heavily fortified military bases and filming themselves in the gardens of overrun kibbutzim.
Over painful hours, partygoers called into Israeli TV stations describing massacres as they hid from gunmen at the now notorious Nova Music Festival. Terrified residents shared videos of armed Palestinian squads on the streets of Sderot.
Source: bbc.com
