Israel’s darkest day: the 24 hours of terror that shook the country

As dawn broke last Saturday over the 40-mile Gaza-Israel barrier, once confidently described as an iron wall", Hamas struck at the eyes and ears of Israel's defence. It was shortly before 6.30am at the end of a Sukkot week of holiday when explosive devices, dropped from above by drones, made a mockery of past claims of impregnability by disabling the wall's communication towers and its remote-controlled machine gun posts, while snipers picked off sensors and cameras, blinding Israeli defenders left staring at blank screens to what was in deadly motion.

Unseen in the weak light of early morning and unheard under the roar of the first of about 2,200 rockets fired towards southern and central Israel, Hamas fighters used wire cutters to make discreet punctures in the 20ft-tall double fence barrier or detonated small explosive loads to create larger openings.