Hamas vs. Israel: 7 crucial questions and answers about the nascent war

These are the heaviest civilian and military losses Israel has ever suffered in a conflict in such a short period. As President Isaac Herzog stated, never since the Holocaust have so many Jews been murdered in one day.

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip reports 5,763 wounded and 1,203 dead. There are casualties among the staff of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA): 11 dead. Israel reported finding 1,500 bodies of slain militants on its territory.

What next?

Israel is officially at war, with 300,000 reservists called up for military service. Heavy military equipment is being relocated closer to the Gaza Strip, while other forces and weapons are being moved to the border with Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated unequivocally that Hamas will be destroyed in the same way as ISIS, which means an inevitable ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

Since the military capabilities of Hamas, coupled with all of its Islamist allies, are still incomparable to those of the IDF, the question remains: what purpose was served by such a bloody and defiant attack? It is unlikely that the militant leadership seriously expected to defeat the Israeli army.

The list of objectives may have included provoking a harsh Israeli response and causing the deaths of Palestinian civilians, which should increase support for Palestine in the Arab world and help Hamas stay in power. In addition, according to an Al-Monitor source, the militants were taken aback by their own progress as they’d originally planned to inflict a localized defeat on the Israelis and take a handful of hostages, which wouldn’t have led to such a large-scale response.

The extent of Iran’s involvement in the preparation and execution of the Hamas operation remains unclear. Some sources suggest Iranian intelligence agencies were directly involved in plotting the attack. According to other assessments, Tehran's involvement has yet to be investigated and established.

Preliminary U.S. intelligence findings suggest that many senior Iranian officials, who should have knowledge of operations abroad, were indeed surprised by the Hamas attack. That said, the long-standing financial and technical support of Hamas by the Iranian regime is beyond doubt, especially since the militants themselves have been open about it for a long time.