All language subtitles for Failure at the Fence (full documentary) _ FRONTLINE + @WashingtonPost - English (United States)

♪ ♪

(indistinct chatter)

>> More than 20 years,

we are suffering
from rockets here.

>> JON SWAINE: Before October 7,
had anyone intruded?

Had they
come into the kibbutz,

or was that the first day
that people...

>> This is the first day.
>> SWAINE: Yeah.

(voiceover): I met
Israel Lender in Kfar Aza,

near the border with Gaza,
in the weeks after the Hamas

massacre that left around 60 of
his neighbors dead.

>> This is my house.

You see now
they covered all the...

glasses that was broken.

From here, they can see

all the streets.

>> SWAINE:
So they came here,

they went on your roof?
>> Yes.

>> SWAINE:
So they could have a view

of the rest of the kibbutz.
>> Yes, yes, yes.

>> SWAINE:
He told me Hamas gunmen

stormed his house
shortly after sunrise,

and turned it
into a sniper's nest.

He hid with his wife in
a nearby room for 36 hours.

>> The door was closed,
the windows was closed,

and the glass was open.

So I could hear everything.

(distorted speech
and gunfire)

(indistinct shouting,
radios beeping)

(indistinct shouting)

>> (speaking Arabic)

>> (screaming)

(boom echoing)

>> Terrible.

You can't, you can't,

you can't...

think about it.

♪ ♪

You can't believe it.
>> SWAINE: Mm.

>> You can't believe it.

You can't imagine it.

What they did here...
>> SWAINE: Mm.

>> Nobody can do.

They build a big wall.
>> SWAINE: Mm-hmm.

>> They said to us,

40, 40 meters in the ground,

with the sensors
that nobody can--

and six meter up.

>> SWAINE: They said
"This will protect you."

>> Yeah.

We believe that
this can protect us.

>> SWAINE:
They just broke through.

They came through.
>> They came through.

♪ ♪

>> (speaking Arabic):

>> SWAINE:
On the morning of October 7,

more than a thousand fighters

from the Palestinian
militant group Hamas

broke through the
20-foot-high barrier

that has long-separated Israel

from the Gaza Strip,
a densely populated enclave

that is home to more than
two million Palestinians.

The 37-mile long barrier
was completed in 1996

and is outfitted with
cutting-edge surveillance tools,

a deep underground
concrete layer

to block Hamas tunnels,

and remote-control
machine guns above ground.

After a billion-dollar
upgrade in 2021,

Israeli officials dubbed it
"the Iron Wall."

>> (speaking Hebrew):

(explosion booming)

>> SWAINE:
But in a matter of minutes,

Hamas was able
to breach the fence

in around 30 locations--

the start of what would become

the deadliest assault in
Israel's history.

At least 1,200
people were killed;

240 were taken hostage.

♪ ♪

The attack triggered
a catastrophic war in Gaza

that has killed thousands
of Palestinians so far.

Israel has vowed
to destroy Hamas,

which has controlled
the territory for years.

>> Broadly,
the fighters entered

at 6:40 A.M.
>> SWAINE: Uh-huh.

And that's the same incident,
just from the other side

of the street.
>> Exactly.

>> SWAINE (voiceover):
Soon after the Oct 7 attack,

"The Washington Post"
began investigating

how the so-called Iron Wall

could have failed
so spectacularly.

Our team of reporters analyzed
hundreds of videos, photos,

and audio recordings

from before, during,
and after the attack.

With "Frontline,"

we spoke with witnesses
on the ground.

>> We got hit with
the first RPG.

>> SWAINE: And examined maps
and planning documents

recovered from Hamas fighters.

We took the visual evidence
from October 7

and mapped it across
southern Israel

and inside the Gaza Strip,

sometimes using
the position of the sun

to estimate when
key events occurred.

What we found
was a fragile barrier

that gave Israel
a false sense of security.

leaving it blind
to its own vulnerabilities

and to the meticulous plan
taking shape

on the other side
of the fence.

(indistinct shouting)

>> SWAINE: The attack
began at dawn, around 6:15 A.M.

Videos recovered
from Hamas fighters

show them
setting off from Gaza,

and heading toward the fence,

which has long been resented

by Gazans who've been
penned in by it.

(Hamas fighters
shouting in Arabic)

>> SWAINE: People along
the road cheered them on.

(explosion booming)

(shouting in Arabic)

(rockets firing)

>> SWAINE:
Around 6:30,

as fighters made
their way to the fence,

Hamas began firing a barrage
of thousands of rockets

at targets
across the barrier.

♪ ♪

In just the first five minutes
of the attack,

there were red alerts for more
than 30 communities

near the Israeli side
of the wall.

In Kibbutz Erez,

less than a mile from the
barrier,

Ben Sadan, a member of
the community security,

had just woken up for
an early morning bike ride.

>> (speaking Hebrew):

>> SWAINE: So over there,
we can see Gaza.

>> (in English): There.
>> SWAINE: Yeah.

And the, the security fence...
>> Yeah.

>> SWAINE: You can see it
running along there,

and there's the towers
with the machine gun.

>> Yeah.
It's the border.

>> SWAINE: Yeah.

>> On the left side, it's Gaza.

On the right side, Israeli.

>> SWAINE: And I think
some of the earliest rockets

came over just around here.
>> All around, all around.

(in Hebrew):

>> SWAINE:
From this hilltop,

the next wave of
Hamas's attack became visible.

Reconnaissance fighters
on paragliders,

soaring over the wall under
cover from the rockets.

Videos we obtained
show them landing in

communities inside Israel,

the culmination of a plan

that had been years
in the making--

and that,
as we discovered,

had been brewing in plain
sight.

>> When I first saw this video,

I was like, "Oh, this is
video from day of.

How did they get this
produced out so quickly?"

And then,
once you look closer...

(clicks tongue) Oh.
It's obviously a training video.

♪ ♪

>> SWAINE: Our investigation
found multiple videos

recorded by Hamas detailing
their planning measures.

Some were posted on
social media before the attack,

visible to all.

We found videos of militants
training for attacks

on mock-ups
of Israeli compounds.

Videos posted
soon after the attack

showed they had
also been practicing

the use of paragliders.

Hamas had also been expanding
their training camps,

activity that was visible
in widely available online maps.

But this evidence
was largely ignored

or dismissed by Israeli
intelligence and the military,

our investigation found.

♪ ♪

Michael Milshtein
is a former head of

the Palestinian department

for Israel's
military intelligence.

He has been strongly
critical of their missteps

leading up to October 7.

Israel knew about,

about the whole plans,

because, you know,

Hamas didn't hide them.

It was on public,
on their internet sites,

on their TV, everywhere.

From the operational tactic
point of view,

October the 7th,
we-- Israel, IDF--

didn't...

face any, any surprise
over there.

>> SWAINE: Were there
specific warnings

that something like this
could be coming?

>> Well, according to reports
in the Israeli media,

there was
very focused reports

about the whole plan,

the, the whole offensive plan,
that promoted...

and actually the data,

the reports itself,
were known,

even to senior ranks,

senior figures
in IDF intelligence.

But the basic assumption,

the basic assessment
in the intelligence,

was that those are
only trainings

or theoretic...

theoretic attempts.

But we are not speaking

about something
which is very feasible.

♪ ♪

(Hamas fighters
speaking Arabic)

>> SWAINE: The heart of
Hamas's operation on October 7

was the stage
that their videos call

"the blinding plan,"

aimed at severing
the connections

to Israel's surveillance
and security system.

♪ ♪

Israel uses seven "Skystar"
surveillance balloons

to monitor hotspots along
the Gaza fence.

The balloons carry a long-range,
360-degree camera.

But the model of camera

that Israel
uses on the balloons

is relatively old
and is no longer made.

On the morning of October 7,

we found that
three of the seven balloons

had been shut down
for maintenance.

(indistinct shouting,
weapons firing)

Video from the attack shows
one of the remaining balloons.

A source told us
it had been cut loose

by the militants.

The balloons
are part of a system

that includes surveillance
and weapons towers.

Visuals and other data
from the towers

are fed into monitoring
centers inside Israel,

including one near Re'im.

>> It doesn't matter how many
combat soldiers they are.

If they don't know
where the enemy is,

they can't fight the enemy.

>> SWAINE: Rotem Horowitz
spent two years

monitoring
the camera feeds at Re'im

before completing her
military service last spring.

Three of the balloons
were out of service

on the day,
they weren't working.

>> Mm-hmm.
>> SWAINE: The cameras

needed to be repaired,
but they're old

and out of production.
>> Yeah.

So...

>> SWAINE:
Is that a big problem?

>> I personally think it is.

They were first brought
into use in 2006, and...

ever since then, it's
kind of been the same system.

It doesn't work very well

during rough weather,

like, only when weather
conditions are perfect.

>> SWAINE:
Do you remember people

sending up warnings
that, you know,

these balloons
are getting out of date,

some of them aren't working,

they're not working
in bad weather?

>> Yeah, I know that

the surveillance operators
on the balloon have...

as long as I've been there,
you know, I served there--

we've been complaining
about how the balloons see

and, like, in general,
their quality.

>> SWAINE: Mm.
>> Ever since I can remember.

>> SWAINE: The balloons
are supplemented

by surveillance towers
containing HD cameras,

laser and infrared sensors,
and radars,

and can see people
for almost six miles away,

according to the manufacturer.

Other structures,
called Sentry Tech towers,

are topped with
Samson weapons stations,

which feature machine guns
and sensors.

They're positioned
every few hundred yards

along the barrier

and outside
key military facilities,

and are nicknamed "Roeh-Yoreh,"

Hebrew for "Sees Fires".

Once the sensors send an
intruder alert,

IDF personnel can fire

the 50-caliber machine guns

by remote control.

>> We have to really make sure

that we can firmly see
a weapon and a threat

before we can actually
do anything with it.

So usually, like, if someone's
getting close to the fence,

we use it to kind of--

not shoot at them,
but shoot near them

to kind of, like,
scare them away.

Like, "Don't come close."

You know, we're
not going to touch them

if they don't come close.

The moment they're
showing they're a threat

and they're coming close,
that's when we start to act.

>> (speaking Hebrew):

>> SWAINE: Video from one of the
sentry towers on October 7

shows it firing on
a group of Hamas fighters

as they approached
the fence near Kissufim.

But that's not
what happened elsewhere.

Hamas fighters had come
prepared to evade the towers,

and documents recovered
after the attack

reveal a deep
and detailed knowledge

of Israeli defenses.

In this one,
they specifically note

the locations
of surveillance systems.

Fighters also
carried with them

open source satellite imagery

annotated with coded locations

of key structures
along the wall.

Armed with this information,

Hamas carried out
their blinding plan

using unmanned drones
equipped with cameras,

to drop explosives
on installations

like this surveillance tower

in the community of Be'eri.

Of the sentry tech towers
marked on the map,

we verified videos of at least
two of them being attacked.

This one,
located near Kfar Aza,

was attacked
twice by Hamas drones.

Incendiary explosive devices

with fuses were dropped on

the camera and weapons system.

Some of the training videos
we found posted online

show that these drone maneuvers

had been well-rehearsed.

(bomb bursting)

Other videos from the 7th
show towers being attacked

with rocket-propelled
grenades

and gunfire.

It's hard to tell
just from the video evidence

how badly damaged
the installations were.

Hi, thank you so much
for your time,

I really appreciate you coming
and seeing us tonight...

(voiceover):
But retired Colonel Dany Tirza,

the former head of the Israeli
military's fence administration,

told me Hamas's blinding plan
drastically undermined

Israel's ability
to respond to the attack.

>> That was a real failure,

because they succeeded

to cut the command system.

The command system of
all this area...

>> SWAINE: Mm-hmm.
>> ...was built on

one control system,

and they succeeded to cut it.

And therefore,

we couldn't use helicopters,

because according
to the Israeli system,

the helicopters cannot shoot

if there is not someone
on the ground

that show them
where are your forces,

where are the
other side forces.

So they came,
but they couldn't shoot,

because they didn't know

who and what
is going on there.

>> SWAINE: In 2021,
when the latest upgrade...

was unveiled,

some of the political
and military leaders

made very firm, quite bold,
claims for the barrier.

They said, "This will protect

"the residents in the south.

Hamas will not get in."

And...

Was that a mistake,
to promise those things?

>> Of course
it was a mistake.

We really thought
that we are building

a very good infrastructure

that will help to save
the lives of the Israelis.

Unfortunately, it didn't work.

>> SWAINE:
He said the attack exposed

a fundamental misconception
about the fence.

>> It was built against people
that will try to cross it.

It wasn't built against army

or against a lot of people
that are coming in one time.

>> SWAINE:
Were you surprised--

you, personally-- surprised

at how quickly they were
able to blast through

and make it into
the bases and beyond?

>> I myself was not surprised

that they crossed it so quickly,

because defense is not built

for such fighting.

It was built for another thing.

If you want to stop an army,

you are doing it with
army tools.

If you want to stop
one, two, three terrorists,

you're doing it with soft tools,
like what we did.

We didn't thought
that there will come

a terror army
from the other side,

that were crossing at
the same time, big groups,

and we were not prepared for it.

♪ ♪

>> SWAINE:
The Israeli government says

Hamas broke through the fence

in around 30 locations.

We obtained videos from
14 of them.

♪ ♪

The videos show trained
Hamas fighters

using a range of explosives
and munitions

to blow holes in the fence

and its concrete barriers.

(explosion blasting)

(indistinct yelling)

♪ ♪

It took them only minutes.

♪ ♪

By around 6:40 A.M.,

Israel's Iron Wall
had largely crumbled.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

In the weeks
that have followed,

Israel's military and
intelligence establishments

have come under
intense criticism.

A spokesman for
the Israeli Defense Forces,

Lieutenant Colonel
Peter Lerner,

agreed to speak with me
at a military base in Tel Aviv.

Hamas has published
several training videos

which appear to show fighters

in the months before

practicing specific tactics

that were then used on the day,

blowing up fences,
paragliding, and so on.

Did Israel not see this?

>> I mean, we're looking at
what exactly transpired

before the 7th of October,

and there will be a time
when the IDF will be

doing that soul searching
that is required,

and the IDF will review that,

and those that need
to take responsibility

will have to take
responsibility.

>> SWAINE: What do
you think October 7 says

about the integrity
of that barrier?

>> So, the barrier itself
is a concept

that was perceived to be

a strong line of defense.

And any line of defense
can only withhold

a certain amount of pressure.

I think the question is

not necessarily
what is the barrier,

but what was
the threat assessment?

And these are
the types of questions

that we will be asking.

These are the
types of questions that,

that the answers to
the residents

of those towns
of the Kibbutzim,

we owe them...

clarification, and, and...

accountability for

the failure of not the fence,

but the whole concept
of operations.

And this, I think, is

what the IDF
will be looking into

when we... when the war is over.

♪ ♪

(Hamas fighters
speaking indistinctly)

>> SWAINE:
The Hamas fighters

that broke through
the fence that morning

were bound
for the military bases

and communities
along the border.

(gunfire)

♪ ♪

One group headed for
Kibbutz Erez,

where Ben Sadan

and the rest
of his security team

had already armed themselves.

And watched with dismay
as the fighters kept coming.

>> (speaking Hebrew):

>> SWAINE:
And they're carrying weapons?

>> SWAINE: What kinds of things
are they carrying?

>> SWAINE:
How many of them were there,

and how many of your men
were there?

>> SWAINE: He told me the combat
lasted for three hours.

After these
few hours of fighting,

what happened next?

♪ ♪

>> SWAINE: Sadah
and his team had avoided

the potential massacre.

>> Breaking news out of
Israel...

>> Chaos erupting in Israel...

>> SWAINE: But other
communities were overrun.

>> Hamas militants currently
attacking citizens...

>> Shooting at
people on the streets,

attacking troops...

>> SWAINE: At 7:01,

the first Hamas gunmen

broke through the gate
at Kfar Aza.

>> We are in kibbutz Kfar Aza.

>> SWAINE:
More than 250 others would

follow throughout the morning.

>> You can see this massacre.

It smells of death here.

♪ ♪

>> SWAINE: Some of
the fighters wore body cameras,

and the videos recovered later

show the rampage
through the kibbutz.

>> (speaking Arabic)

(distant weapons firing)

♪ ♪

>> So this is my place.
>> SWAINE: Yeah.

(debris crunching)

>> What's left of my house.

I don't have a roof, and look,

everything is black and...

and burned.

>> SWAINE: Yuri Levin
witnessed the violence that day,

and told me
he'd barely escaped

being kidnapped
and taken to Gaza--

a fate that befell
many of his neighbors.

>> He is kidnapped.

He is also kidnapped.

>> SWAINE: And these are
all friends of yours?

You knew everyone?
>> They kidnapped.

>> She kidnapped.

He is murdered.

He is also kidnapped.

Murdered, and two of them

kidnapped, I think.
>> SWAINE: Yeah.

>> Yes, now I think I know.

And...

This is friends of me.

>> SWAINE: Across the street,

a group of his friends
were returning home

for the first time
since the attack.

(crying, heart beating)

(crying, heart beating
continues)

>> (exhales)

>> YURI (speaking Hebrew):

>> INBAR (speaking Hebrew):

>> ADI (speaking Hebrew):

>> INBAR:

>> (speaking Hebrew):

♪ ♪

>> SWAINE: Israel,
can you tell me about

who these people are
in the pictures?

>> These pictures?

>> SWAINE: Mm.

>> This is our village team.

Football team.

They're called...

the fox of the village.

>> SWAINE: The young men?

>> The Kfar Aza village.

Some of them died.

>> SWAINE: Show me.

>> Some of them...

are kidnapped.

He's died.

And...

This is in Gaza.

This, two brothers
are in Gaza.

His parent's house?

>> SWAINE: Gone.
>> It was destroyed.

He's lost his mother
and father,

and his brother.

You know, almost everyone

has a connection
for who's murdered,

who's kidnapped, who's injured.

Everyone from here.

>> SWAINE: It's touched
the whole community.

>> Yeah.

♪ ♪

Captioned by Media Access Group
at WGBH access.wgbh.org.

>> For more on this and other
Frontline programs visit our

website at pbs.org/frontline.

♪ ♪

Frontline's "Netanyahu, America
& the Road to War in Gaza" and

"Failure at the Fence"

are available on
Amazon Prime Video.