Three Palestinian youths managed to sneak into Israel on Tuesday by crossing the border fence in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli security official said on Wednesday, despite a state of alert and high alert.
On Tuesday, three Palestinian youths managed to penetrate 20 kilometers to the outskirts of the Israeli Army's ground training base, Tze'elim, before walking almost freely on the roads of Kibbutz Tse'lim, according to surveillance cameras.
The security and Arab affairs analysts in the Israeli newspapers considered that what happened was a major security failure for the Israeli army in controlling the border and preventing Palestinians from entering Israel, despite the declaration of a state of alert and high preparedness in the army, "Earth Day", on Friday.
The Maariv newspaper reported that Tuesday's incident was "a state of utter failure, culminating in three security incidents that took place on the border with Gaza, starting with the Palestinian group's ability to pass the border last Saturday, and through the nervousness that was manifested in activating the system The iron dome, two days ago, in response to the firing of machine guns in the sector, to the infiltration, yesterday. "
"Something is happening in the army's command in the south (the border with the Gaza Strip). The border fence, which was hard on the Palestinian factions, is easy to pass by ordinary Palestinian citizens," said Tal Lev Ram, a military correspondent.
For his part, the analyst Yossi Yehoshua, in the newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth," that "a series of recent events, confirms that something is not good happening in the Gaza detachment, recently, and can no longer cover the pretexts of different."
In a reference to the Israeli army command that the Palestinians who managed to infiltrate into Israel on Tuesday and crossed the border benefited from the heavy fog. The preliminary investigation by the Israeli army showed that the warning network connected to the border fence was fired, but the force that arrived at the site , Did its work superficially, and did not examine the site well.
According to Yehoshu'a, "even if we acknowledge the IDF's estimates that the three Palestinians are not terrorists, we are left with a resounding failure that joins a series of mistakes, which the IDF is not supposed to fall into, and certainly not at a time when the army is on the alert. To face the events of the Earth Day and the march of return. "
"If this is the situation of the army in preparedness and preparedness, it is a matter of concern," he said.
Yoav Limor, a military analyst for the Israel Hayom newspaper, said that "the only point of light in the infiltration operation on Tuesday was that it ended without injuries and casualties. This is due not to the IDF, but to the Palestinians who infiltrated and did not do anything A process or an attempt to kill or abduct Israelis, even though the opportunity was available to them. "
Limor said that "the failure of the army on Tuesday, in fact, all the relevant bodies and systems: the intelligence that did not know the infiltration, the observation points that did not reveal the border fence cut, and the chase, which extended for many hours after the process occurred Crossing borders ".
Like other analysts, Limor pointed out that "the infiltration operation on Tuesday is the third incident in a week in which the army is forced to examine itself. It was preceded by the launching of the Iron Dome system two days ago, in contrast to an excessive nervousness in the army, A precedent, last Saturday. "
He added that "the recurrence of these incidents within a week, in which the army is on alert, it should worry the top leaders of the army in the southern region, especially in light of the approaching date of the return process."
Limor said, "It is realistic to assume that the sequence of these events was not lost on the leadership of Hamas, although estimates in Israel are still as they are, that Hamas is not interested in a military confrontation or escalation."
But Israel has to be careful not to drag Hamas behind temptations to reap tactical achievements that would increase in the face of mistakes and recent failures on the Israeli side, and what might seem to be an ecstasy or a serious loophole in Gaza in the walls and lines of Israeli defense and deterrence "He said.
