Not thinking something like this could happen and consequently not having forces postured so that they could react fast enough. It's always easy to call everything an intelligence failure and most folks who work in that business might agree as they tend to take things like this very hard. I have zero insight into Hamas' planning or the Israeli's penetration of that planning cycle. I'm more interested in the Iranian involvement. They have been getting away with so much for so long in many places around the world. The Israelis and U.S. have been fighting the "Iranians" in Syria and the U.S. has been fighting them in Iraq and other places. They are helping the Houthis, and Russians. Wonder when it is time to take the fight in some form to the Iranian mainland. That's a big can of worms to open for sure.