“All of Israel is asking itself: Where is the IDF, where is the police, where is the security?” agreed Eli Maron, the former head of the Israeli Navy, alongside him in the studio. “It’s a colossal failure; the hierarchies have simply failed, with vast consequences.”

Amos Yadlin, a former IDF intelligence chief, invoked echoes of the Yom Kippur War — another attack marked by “intelligence failure,” with the enemy initiating conflict.