It was shortly before 6.30am at the end of a Sukhot holiday week, when explosive devices, dropped by drones, made a mockery of claims of impregnability, by disabling the wall's communication towers and its remote-controlled machine-gun posts while snipers picked off the sensors and cameras, blinding Israeli defenders staring at blank screens to what was in deadly motion.
Unseen in the weak light of early morning and unheard under the roar of the first of about 2,200 rockets fired towards southern and central Israel, Hamas fighters made discreet punctures with wire cutters into the 20ft-high doublefence barrier, or detonated small explosive loads to create larger openings. It allowed their besttrained men to scramble across on motorbikes and pick-up trucks to embark on a murderous search for the closest Israeli soldiers.
The shock troops from the military wing of Hamas, known as the Qassam brigades, their silhouettes bristling with Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades, were followed by bulldozers and hundreds more armed men, swarming into some 30 different breaches of the defensive line, many crossing on foot. Some militants, showing a taste for the spectacular, flew over on motorised paragliders - terror on wings.
A total of 1,500 gunmen are believed to have crossed under a sky lit by rocket fire.
"We have decided to put an end to all of the occupation's crimes," announced Hamas's military commander, Mohammed Deif.
"The time is over for them to act without accountability. Thus, we announce the 'Al-Aqsa Deluge"".
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 14, 2023 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 14, 2023 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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