It is hard to describe just how unprecedented today’s developments are.

Not only is this likely to be the worst intelligence failure since the 1973 Yom Kippur war (and the timing is no accident – it’s 50 years almost to the day), but rarely, if ever, has Israel lost control of its own towns.

The scenes from Sderot and other communities around the Gaza Strip, with Palestinian gunmen apparently roaming the streets at will, kidnapping and killing civilians, will send the deepest shockwaves throughout Israel.

That, of course, is the point.
Hamas has tried numerous tactics in the past, from suicide bombs to tunnels into Israel and even “incendiary kites”.

But the Gaza-based militants have never tried anything remotely this audacious before. By their standards, this was an astonishingly sophisticated – and, yes, brutal – act of hybrid warfare, using hundreds of rockets as the prelude to a mass breakout at multiple points along the normally impregnable fence.

The civilians of Gaza must now brace themselves for Israel’s inevitable response. Air strikes are just the prelude.

Gazans know what’s coming, because they’ve seen it many times before. But with some in Israel saying it’s now time to eradicate Hamas altogether, everyone knows the coming days or weeks will be very tough.