The killing of at least 700 Israelis in the carnage of the attack by Hamas is the most lethal day in the country’s many conflicts, exceeding by far the 317 killed on 7 October 1973, the first 24 hours of the Yom Kippur war, which had also started with the enemy achieving a total surprise attack to great effect.
Unlike that conflict, when multiple assaults came from Arab states led by Egypt and Syria, what happened this weekend is not an existential threat to the Jewish state.
