Opinion: Why Hamas might have already won
On 7 October, Hamas mounted a bold and desperate operation in which it invaded southern Israel and occupied a score of towns and kibbutzim, killing 1,140 people.
This carefully coordinated air, land and sea assault by Hamas, which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK and other countries, was overwhelming in scope. It stunned Israel and the world.
After well over a year of planning and training, 1,000 fighters broke through the billion-dollar defensive shield Israel had painstakingly erected around Gaza over a decade or more.
The assault showed everyone that all the sophisticated technology in the world can be defeated by a small guerilla force using surveillance, planning and swarming battlefield tactics.
Hamas breached security measures that Israelis had been lulled into thinking were impenetrable. It smashed all assumptions Israeli military intelligence had made about Hamas.