Security blindsided - How militants managed to carry out a rampage

The Hamas assault on the Erez crossing, the looming symbol of Israel's security infrastructure at the far northern end of the Gaza Strip, was indicative of what would come at other key locations.

- Peter Beaumont

A maze of rooms, with cameras, hi-tech scanners and "tiger trap" doors, all overseen by Israeli officials who deliver commands by loudspeaker, it is also a surveillance and communications hub, set into the high concrete wall guarding that part of Gaza.

Launched not long after daybreak last Saturday, Hamas's attack on the crossing was as sudden as it was deadly, captured in video shot by the Islamist militants and posted online.

Beginning with a detonation from what appeared to be an anti-tank guided missile, members of Hamas's special forces - Nukhba - quickly moved to secure entrances to the complex and to the access gate used by the Israeli military to enter Gaza during incursions, engaging Israeli forces in their watchtowers set into the wall.

In one shot a body can be seen lying on the ground in a concrete-lined tunnel. The surprise was total.

The aim of militants at Erez and other key locations along the Gaza border, as has become clear since Hamas launched its rampage through southern Israel, was to decapitate the ability of Israel's security forces to communicate with each other.

Videos posted to Hamas social media sites showed the militants moving quickly to engage Israeli vehicles that could stand in their way, including the apparent disabling of a tank hit by a munition dropped from a drone near the border fence.