Highyway To Hell

Hamas made use of the economics of terror to get the better of Israel's military and intelligence, pushing the country into disarray and threatening diplomatic realignments in the Middle East. Israelis say they might have lost the battle, but will win the war

- NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

At noon on October 7, Chaim Talker was working in his grocery store with his daughter at the Tekoa settlement near Jerusalem when he got a bot call (playing a recorded message) on his mobile phone. The message asked him to report to his IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) unit within two hours. He could hear emergency sirens warning of rocket attacks and he knew what the message meant.

Traditionally, the message is known as ‘Order 8’. First mentioned in the Security Service Law of Israel (1949), it can ask any soldier to report for reserve service when necessary. There was mass mobilisation of troops during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, but at that time there were neither bots nor mobile phones. There would be an announcement on the radio or a letter would be dropped to the residences with codes of officers who knew that the call was for them and they would quietly slip away from their homes.

Dropping all work, Talker, 55, changed into his olive uniform, kissed his kids goodbye and set out to join his army unit. Along the way, as he travelled through the streets of Israel, Hamas cadre were butchering, shooting and kidnapping hundreds of innocent people, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas, the Iran-backed militant outfit that runs the Gaza Strip between Israel and Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea, has openly vowed to destroy Israel and kill an Israeli hostage for every Israeli act of retaliation. “It is war,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Even though we did not start it, we will end it.”