Reuters World News - Israel's response, inside Hamas' planning -- and the roles of Biden and a divided Congress

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

Israeli rockets are pounding Gaza and its soldiers continues to battle Hamas militants inside their own border. Listen to our correspondents on how Hamas planned their attack right under the noses of Israeli intelligence. Hear how the conflict may unfold, what we know about dozens of Israeli hostages and the shocking ambush of a rave party. Plus, the challenge now for Joe Biden and a divided Congress as an old conflict re-ignites. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Gaza is pounded by rockets. Israel says it's also sent in four combat divisions to battle Islamist militants and continue to fight Hamas inside its own borders. Israel is at war after the deadliest raid on its territory in 50 years. American ships are being deployed nearby in a show of support, as the threat of a widening war in the Middle East has oil and gold prices soaring while equities slide. It's Monday, October 9th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday.

I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. This is Israel's 9-11, and Israel will do everything to bring our sons and daughters back home. Hamas's rampage through Israeli towns on Saturday was the deadliest incursion since Egypt and Syria's attacks in the Yom Kupur War 50 years ago. It has reignited the long-running conflict. Mian Lubel is in Jerusalem. Mayan, people have been glued to their screens to their phones for the past 48 hours. What's the latest? Fighting is still ongoing in seven or eight locations, possibly with more Gaza militants

coming in through the breached border, though that's still unclear. There is fear that the death toll is going to rise. There are bodies still being recovered. One of the first targets of the Hamas gunmen was a rave close to the border with Gaza. What happened there? That was a dance party attended by a few thousand people. Hamas gunmen arrived on vans, according to witnesses, survivors, and started basically opening fire on the people there, spraying them with bullets,

wounding people in the legs so they can't resist in dragging them back over the border. Rescue teams, they have so far attended to 260 bodies there. And there are many people who are still missing. What is the latest on the hostage situation? It looks like Hamas has taken more hostages than it was expecting, possibly. Israeli officials have said dozens, but again, they don't know yet. There's still fog of war. People missing their fate unknown, whether they're dead, whether they're wounded somewhere,

or whether they've been taken. We've obviously seen Israeli retaliation, airstrikes on Gaza. What's the situation there now? Yes, there's heavy airstrikes across Gaza right now. Israel basically said it wants to take Hamas out of commission. Whether they'll achieve that is unclear, whether they can do that while there are hostages alive in Gaza if they want to bring them back safely. Israel is expecting fighting to go on for weeks.

I imagine a possible ground invasion, possible flare up on other borders as well. But no one is expecting this to be a quick round of fighting. It's a game changer, basically. Israel's security forces were caught off guard when it came to the attacks, and defense chiefs now face hard questions. Reuters reporting has revealed how Hamas carried out a careful campaign of deception to pull off its stunning attack. Jonathan Saul is one of the reporters on the story. Jonathan, the Israelis have the most sophisticated defence systems in the world.

What went wrong here? The entire security establishment is reeling from all kinds of questions. And it's unclear what happens next. There's still no clear indications why they fail to see all the signs pointing towards some kind of action by Hamas. What do the intelligence services fail to see? So Hamas undertook an extensive project of training right under the nose of Israeli surveillance involving a special unit of hundreds of fighters, including a mocked-up settlement. It's been working on this plan for two years under the strictest and highest security.

It's incredible that they managed to pull this off and execute it in the way that they did, almost flawlessly in many ways. What was the Israeli intelligence view of Hamas while they were training for this operation? Well, this was part of the problem because Israel was under the guise that Hamas was looking very much towards stabilising the situation

through receiving financial aid. And that was certainly the message that Amas tried to communicate. It was a diversionary tactic. But why Israel came to this conclusion was that there was multiple incursions and clashes with other groups, including Islamic jihad.

At each point over the past two years, Hamas has opted not to intervene and join much to the consternation and chagrown of their own supporters. So under that impression, Israel believes that at least there would be an operational understanding that either side did not want to engage in extreme hostilities.

At the same time, of course, Hamas was planning this in the most extensive way in meticulous detail. I understand that some of the training focused on this one particular rave where we saw hundreds killed. Yes, so my understanding was that this rave is something that takes place quite often within Israeli borders. And this is something that was honed in on by Hamas, unbeknownst to the Israelis and the young

revelers, many of them very young, some even into their early teens. Hamas saw what was going on, and they focused in on it as part of their strategy, as far as we understand it, their attack strategy that is. You've reported on the unhappiness of the security forces over Netanyahu's judicial reform. Is there a sense that internal conflict played a role in distracting anyone here? It depends, so you ask. In some quarters of the security establishment, I've been informed by my sources that it didn't really have an effect, whereas others are making the point that what it did do is derail, if not completely erode morale and the operational abilities of units to fight in cohesion. Certainly there's been a lot of disarray in government, and that's filtered through to some extent into the military. Although what's happened in the past 24 to 48 hours is there's been a huge mobilization.

Units are back at full strength, reservists are fully in place, and there's once again the sort of sense of cohesion and unity and focus, which has been missing arguably, according to some sources for some time. If the United States stands with Israel, we will not ever fail to have their back. Quick to respond on the weekend. The president offering America's support in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. sending military ships and aircraft closer to Israel as a show of support. Idris Ali is in Washington, D.C., with the latest on America's response. Yeah, the reaction inside D.C. has been similar to what it's been around the world, which is sort of horror, shock and surprise.

Seeing rockets fly into Israel is nothing new. But seeing gunmen go inside Israel deep into its territory is something that I think a lot of U.S. officials didn't ever think was possible. I think there's been this image and perception that the Israeli security forces and its military have a robust presence in and around Gaza and would have been able to pick up on this. And so it's really something that's got U.S. policymakers by surprise. We had the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan a couple of weeks ago talk about how the Middle East doesn't keep him as busy. as they once did. And the inference was that it's a lot more calm and quieter, and we've seen that's shattered for U.S. officials over the weekend. What happens now? Netanyahu has declared Israel is at war. What will America and Biden's role be in the immediate future? Yeah. So for the

Biden administration, priority number one is to basically make sure that things stay calm. Things don't spread outside of Gaza. They don't seep into Lebanon and make a region that has been pretty unspe stable for a long time, even more unstable. So I think their focus is on limiting the impact of what is happening. And we've seen what they're already doing earlier today. The Pentagon said that it is moving a number of ships, including an aircraft carrier, closer to the region. We've already seen divisions in the House over Ukraine aid. Will the US government be able to supply Israel with what it wants, given what's going on inside Congress? Yeah, it's one of those things that the United States and the administration is watching closely. The United States has a system of reserve

munitions and weapons inside Israel that it can use to provide to Israel in case it is needed. And so that's something the administration can rely on for a bit, even if Congress is not able to provide additional funding. The other thing is that it just is a sense of chaos in the House of Representatives. And so it's one of those things that the administration has struggled with when comes to Ukraine, how to promise more aid when one branch of government isn't functioning properly. And it's something they're going to face with Israel. The Americans have been focused on a major shift in Middle East relations, Saudi Israel normalization. Is that deal dead now? Where do we stand?

It might not be dead, but it is very close to being in great peril. Domestically for the Biden administration, a lot of focus, a lot of time, a lot of effort has been put on normalizing those relations. And I think there's a lot of concern in the White House that all the efforts that they've had over the past three years might fall. I think it's something we'll see slowly come back to the fore for Washington. But right now, I think they're so focused on providing assistance, a show of support that it's something that's gone to maybe this back burner for just a bit. What do we know about Biden's relationship with Netanyahu? So Biden and Netanyahu have known each other for a long time. It's a relationship that goes back years.

It's something that Biden has talked about publicly. But the reality is that OI's time has gone on, Biden and Netanyahu's relationship has frayed. Netanyahu, for example, has focused on settlement expansion, something that goes directly against what President Biden and at the time Vice President Biden had focused on. There was a lot of frustration in Israel in recent months when President Biden did not invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to the White House. And so there's a lot of work to be done. But one thing we've seen is that this crisis has really given a chance for the relationship to be improved.

The sort of bond between Israel and the United States, which has been very strong traditionally, will probably allow that relationship to sort of skip a few steps and improve in a way that I don't think would have been possible if it wasn't for this crisis. The violence in Israel has investors racing into safe haven assets like gold and the dollar. And they're selling off risky assets with U.S. stock futures sliding. Treasuries are getting a boost and so also is oil because of worries about disruption to supply from the conflict. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back on Tuesday with our daily news show. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast

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