Israel is beginning, step by step, to look back at the disaster of October 7, 2023. The results of an internal commission of inquiry, led by the Israeli army, was presented to Le Monde and other media outlets on Wednesday, February 26. The aim of this work is not so much to uncover the culprits as to draw lessons from this monumental failure: Almost 1,200 Israelis perished that day in the attack by Hamas commandos. Among them were 800 civilians and some 400 members of the security forces, both military and police. And 251 people were taken hostage.

The essential flaw can be summed up as follows: The army knew, but didn't understand; it knew, but didn't believe; and it had a mass of information – "we were addicted to precise intel" – which it failed to interpret. For years, it had been locked into misconceptions, thinking itself safe behind the "smart wall," the $1 billion electronic fence erected around Gaza.

The military recalled the basic facts of the attack. It began at 6:29 am local time on October 7, 2023. Some 5,600 fighters took part in an assault carried out in three successive waves. The first two, from 6:30 am to 7 am, then from 7 am to 9 am, were led exclusively by Hamas and caused the majority of the day's casualties. The third wave of assaults, including other armed groups as well as civilians, lasted from 9 am until the evening. The barrier was breached at some 60 points. Nearly 5,000 rockets were fired. Opposite, Israel's troops numbered just 767, according to the Israeli media.

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