Israel-Palestine war news: How Pegasus spyware failed Israel during Hamas attack

While Israel has been known for its most advanced surveillance technology and defence systems, like Pegasus and the ‘Iron Dome’ respectively, the country failed to dodge the Hamas’ multi-front attack on October 7.

Hamas, a Palestinian militant organisation which rules in Gaza, fired 5,000 rockets at Israel, while its militants broke through the border fences at multiple positions, paraglided into the territory and rampaged through the Israeli colonies.

The militants kidnapped and killed the Israeli civilians, shooting them point blank and recording their assault as they advanced ahead, while the Israeli defence scrambled to retaliate. Hundreds were killed and at least 100 have been abducted and taken to Gaza, in a matter of a few hours.

Both the Pegasus surveillance system and ‘Iron Dome’ had made headlines a few months ago for being the most advanced systems in the world and yet, the failure of both will be remembered for years to come. Let’s know what they are and how they missed Hamas’ attack on Israel.

What is Pegasus and what does it do?

Founded in 2010 by Israel’s NSO Group, Pegasus is a spyware that can infiltrate a targeted mobile phone and access phone numbers, call logs, internet searches, passwords, social media, communications and cameras without the user’s knowledge.

Israel's surveillance of Palestinian society and the activities of Hamas militants is exceptionally advanced and intrusive. What is surprising is that preparations and planning of an attack of this scale couldn’t be picked by Pegasus.

The Hamas fighters stormed in by cutting through the border fences, while hundreds of them landed in the Israeli territory through paragliders. What is surprising is that the most advanced surveillance system, ground motion sensors and border surveillance cameras did not pick up any movement at the border areas, when Hamas militants were crossing in, for Israel to react on time.

The preparation of this scale by Hamas would have taken months of planning and coordination inside Gaza and yet, the surveillance failed here.

What is ‘Iron Dome’ and What does it do?

The ‘Iron Dome’ is a ground-to-air short-range air defence system which intercepts incoming missiles, rockets and even Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and destroys them mid-air. The defence system has a range of 70 kilometres.

When Hamas fired 5,000 rockets from Gaza, the Detection and Tracking radar inside the Iron Dome detected the rockets in the air and sent the information to the weapons control system which then performed quick calculation to detect the trajectory and possible target of the weapon.

But during the Hamas attack, the 'Iron Dome' defense system faced an overwhelming barrage of 5,000 rockets in 20 minutes. While it destroyed many, avoiding hundreds of casualties, some of them managed to breach the cover and hit the Israeli territory.

Of the 5,000 rockets, Israel reported some 3,000 incoming projectiles as others bypassed the defence system and hit the targeted areas.