Israel faces a new kind of war

Israelis awoke to sirens on Saturday. They began after six in the morning on the border of Gaza as Hamas began to fire thousands of rockets at Israeli towns and cities. By eight o’clock the rocket fire had reached Jerusalem. By the evening the full extent of the massive attack had become clear. Over 5,000 missiles were fired as Hamas launched an unprecedented attack across the border, infiltrating a dozen communities and massacring civilians.  

I drove down to the border of Gaza after hearing the sirens in the morning in Jerusalem. Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system was active, intercepting rockets over my head. This is routine in Israel’s wars: the sound of sirens and the percussion of interceptions. But Saturday’s experience was even more unsettling as reports suggested that not all those terrorists who had infiltrated had been found. There were ongoing gun battles in some communities. The sense of danger was palpable.