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The prevailing assumption in the media discourse is that on 7 October, Israel was taken by surprise when Hamas squads launched an attack on the Gaza–Israel border. This event challenged the intelligence community's perception that Hamas had been effectively deterred. It also raised questions about the efficacy of border defenses backed by technological systems. To better understand the origins of these perceptions and the failures they created, it is necessary to delve into the unique role of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Israeli politics.
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Yagil Levy (2025) studied this question.
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