Israelis have been caught with their pants down.
Israel's former Mossad chief: "We didn't have an inkling of what was going on"
From CNN’s Shirin Zia Faqiri
The former chief of Mossad has told CNN that "We had no warning of any kind, and it was a total surprise that the war broke out this morning.”
Efraim Halevy, the former head of Mossad, Israel’s Intelligence Service, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Saturday that Hamas militants had launched thousands of rockets at Israel on Saturday.
“The number of missiles they have launched within less than 24 hours is over 3,000. This is beyond imagination from our point of view, and we didn’t know they had this quantity of missiles, and we certainly didn’t expect that they would be as effective as they were today,” he said.
Halevy also said that the number of rockets fired by Palestinian militants on Saturday morning had “never seen before.” He told CNN that this was a “unique attack” and “the first time” that Gaza has been able to “penetrate deep into Israel and to take control of villages.”
“As an operation, it was highly successful, unfortunately, I think it was well coordinated,” Halevy said.
Halevy said that he suspects the rockets were manufactured in the Gaza strip after being "smuggled in by sea" and that Hamas “probably” was able to perform “trial training” without letting Israeli forces discover their plans.
“We didn’t have an inkling of what was going on,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel is "at war" following a surprise attack from Gaza by Hamas militants.
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