Fighting Hamas puts Israeli

Israelis are shocked and angry about a government they believe failed to protect them after Saturday's surprise attack by Hamas, but observers say the political impact will have to wait while the army fights in Gaza.

Israeli International Institute for Counter-Terrorism executive director, retired colonel Miri Eisin, called the strike, which Israel's intelligence services appear to have totally missed, "a colossal failure".

“Critical voices will come out, but that’s not the focus in Israel right now. We need to get through this [war], then we will start pointing fingers,” she told Al Jazeera. “It will be harsh and horrible, but it will [come] after we’ve stabilised.”

Hamas launched the unprecedented operation at dawn on Saturday, firing thousands of rockets into southern Israel, sending fighters deep into Israeli territory and abducting more than 100 Israelis.

Israel swiftly responded with air attacks on the overcrowded and besieged Gaza Strip.

Israeli air attacks in Gaza have killed more than 560 people, including 20 children. About 800 Israelis have been killed in the Hamas attack, according to media reports.

Clashes are ongoing between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces in southern Israel in the cities of Ashkelon and Sderot and at a kibbutz in Karmia.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce that Israel would “exact an immense price from the enemy” in Gaza and threatened to turn the Palestinian enclave into a “deserted island”.

Israel has placed the impoverished territory of 2.3 million people under a land, air and sea blockade since 2007 and launched repeated assaults on it to fight Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and other armed groups, arguing it needs to act decisively to stop them firing rockets into Israel.

But Israeli operations have not dislodged the armed group from power or stopped the rocket fire as Palestinians have suffered most of the casualties.

Videos of Israeli hostages and revelers at a music festival close to Gaza fleeing into the Naqab Desert after Hamas fighters struck with paragliders and killed up to 250 people on Saturday brought home the attack's extraordinary nature.

Israel's Bar Ilan University's Julia Elad-Strenger, an assistant professor of politics there, claimed that the Israeli public was in shock and would come together behind a firm response.

According to her, "the great shock caused by Hamas kidnapping and attacking civilians in such a planned manner, within Israeli territory, gives very strong legitimation across the political spectrum for a quite dramatic military operation in Gaza."

However, the administration is also subject to harsh criticism for being unprepared, even from inside.

It would replace an administration widely seen as one of the most right-wing governments in Israel’s history, both in terms of its policies towards Palestinians and in terms of its domestic agenda – notably a controversial plan to neuter Israel’s judiciary, which plays a key role in checking executive power.

The reform plan, backed by some of Netanyahu’s most far-right coalition partners, has prompted months of mass protests by Israelis who fear it would spell an end to their democracy.

Elad-Strenger said that, were Lapid and Gantz to join the government, it could dilute or sideline its far-right members. That would in turn give Netanyahu a way to drop the judicial reforms, which have damaged his standing with voters, but still allow him to remain in power.

“Of course, this could also serve the opposition because it would push the more extreme forces out,” she said.

“All the numbers we have show that if this government falls, they won’t have another opportunity to have such a strong foothold.”

The anti-Netanyahu demonstrations have been suspended in the interim. The protests were called off on Saturday night by the organizers, who cited the security situation and expressed support for the army.

Elad-Strenger claimed that some individuals had already begun swapping accusations, with the right blaming the protest movement for causing unrest and leaving the IDF underprepared, while the left held Netanyahu and his ministers accountable for their provocations against Palestinians.

"Israelis are extremely angry with their government for failing to deliver on its promises. Under Netanyahu's leadership, there is a perception that the state has been deteriorating from within, Stephens added.

"This conflict will occur, and Israel will come together. However, you can already sense that there is a desire for vengeance, that something is seriously wrong in the state and throughout the entire system, and that there will be a political price to be paid.