When Israeli army leaders mentioned in 2021 {that a} $1 billion revamp of the long-standing barrier alongside the Gaza Strip would forestall incursions from Hamas, folks residing within the close by Kfar Aza kibbutz trusted them.
“They construct a giant wall, they mentioned to us,” resident Israel Lender, 65, mentioned in an interview for a collaboration between The Washington Put up and filmmakers from “Frontline.”
Lender, who mentioned his kin helped to ascertain the kibbutz lower than two miles from Gaza in 1951, listened to the army’s daring claims concerning the power and surveillance expertise of what they referred to as the Iron Wall. “We believed that this will shield us,” he mentioned.
But on the morning of Oct. 7, Kfar Aza was devastated by Hamas gunmen who had blown via the barrier with ease. Lender mentioned that as he and his spouse cowered of their bolstered protected room, fighters ransacked their house and put in snipers on their roof. The brutality was repeated at residential areas and army outposts throughout the area, leaving no less than 1,100 useless.
The interview with Lender was carried out for the documentary “Failure on the Fence,” embedded on the prime of this web page. Reporters traveled to Israel to interview survivors, troops, medics and safety specialists to ascertain the causes and penalties of the barrier’s collapse.
The movie expands on a visible investigation revealed by The Put up final month, which reconstructed the assault. Reporters analyzed tons of of movies, photographs, and audio recordings from earlier than, throughout and after the assault by Hamas. The Put up additionally examined maps and planning paperwork recovered from slain Hamas fighters.
The documentary examines the barrier’s catastrophic failure. It premieres Tuesday on PBS and streaming platforms and on-line at washingtonpost.com.
The investigation with “Frontline” discovered that the so-called Iron Wall was actually a fragile barrier that gave Israel a false sense of safety. A dependence on the construction and its refined surveillance instruments in the end blinded Israel to its personal vulnerabilities — and to a meticulous plan of assault that was taking form on the opposite facet.
In an interview, Dany Tirza, a retired IDF colonel and former head of its separation fence administration, mentioned it had been an error for leaders to make sweeping assurances concerning the barrier’s impermeability.
“After all it was a mistake,” mentioned Tirza. “We actually thought that we’re constructing an excellent infrastructure that may assist to save lots of the lives of the Israelis. Sadly, it didn’t work.”
In retaliation for the Hamas assault, Israel unleashed a warfare in Gaza that has to this point killed greater than 19,000 Palestinian civilians, based on the Gaza Well being Ministry. Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas, which controls the densely populated enclave.
A spokesman for the IDF, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, mentioned that after the warfare, the army owed the residents of southern Israel “accountability for the failure” that made the Oct. 7 assault potential.
“There will probably be a time when the IDF will probably be doing that soul-searching that’s required,” Lerner mentioned in an interview for the movie.
Press play on the video on the prime of this web page to look at the documentary.
