Israeli eyewitness to terror reeling over devastating surprise attack: ‘Failure of massive proportions’

An eyewitness criticized Saturday’s unprecedented siege on Israeli civilians as a “failure of massive proportions” as terror in the Middle East continues into the second day with no end in sight.

In the mix, Israeli leadership faces a conundrum as some, like Berman, ask why intelligence couldn’t see the attack coming.

“This is an ongoing thing. The terrorists have not been cleaned outside of Israel. There are still terrorists in Israel and all this is a huge, not just an intelligence failure, it’s a huge military and political failure, but more military. How is it possible that they managed to kill all the people, all the outlook posts? Kill the soldiers. Kill them in their sleep…”  Robby Berman, an Israeli tour guide and witness to the violence, said Sunday on FOX News.

“Hundreds of Israelis have been killed,” he continued later. “It’s unbelievable. It’s an act of war and things are not going to be good here in this country for many, many months to come…”

AT LEAST 600 DEAD, ISRAELI PM NETANYAHU DECLARES ‘WAR’ AFTER HAMAS TERRORISTS LAUNCH MASSIVE ATTACK

Cars are on fire after they were hit by rockets from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, Israel, on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip infiltrated Saturday into southern Israel and fired thousands of rockets into the country while Israel began striking targets in Gaza in response.  (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Hamas militants infiltrated Israel on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah on Saturday, firing thousands of rockets at residential areas while holding civilians hostage.

The Israeli cabinet, the same day, officially declared war for the first time since the Yom Kippur War of 1973. As of early Sunday, at least 600 Israelis had reportedly died and thousands were wounded.

“I will not be surprised that if in six months there’s a committee, an inquiry and the prime minister and the defense minister and the head of the chief of staff all and the head of the Shabak, remember all have to resign because it’s a failure of massive proportions, intelligence, military and political,” Berman told Kayleigh McEnany. 

SCOTT SAYS US MUST STAND ‘SHOULDER-TO-SHOULDER’ WITH ISRAEL AFTER HAMAS TERROR ATTACK: ‘NEVER BACK DOWN’

Left in fear, some civilians await rescue. Berman described one incident involving an eight-year-old and her four-year-old brother.

“Just a few hours ago, a woman said that she received a phone call from her niece who was eight years old and said she’s hiding inside her kibbutz. They have killed mommy and daddy. She’s hiding with her four-year-old brother underneath the bed. They’ve been there for hours. No one’s coming to get them…” he said.

Some American tourists are also trapped in the Holy Land, desperate to return home.

Lizzy Savetsky, a New York-based Israel activist, has been in lockdown alongside her family in a hotel since sirens began blaring Saturday. She joined FOX News live from Israel on Sunday where she told “FOX & Friends Weekend” co-host Will Cain her story.

ISRAEL’S MILITARY FORCE IS ‘AT WAR’ WITH HAMAS AS IDF HITS BACK AT TERROR TARGETS

“We are here to celebrate Simchat Torah, which, as you know, ‘Simchat’ means happy. It’s a celebration of happiness and joy and our devotion to our Torah and our homeland. Then we were rudely awakened yesterday morning by the siren going off. My husband was already down in the synagogue in our hotel. He was with my nine-year-old daughter, and I was up in the room with my older daughter and my baby boy and my older daughter came into the room and she said, ‘I hear sirens. Somebody said, there’s a bomb drill.’ And I said, ‘Stella, there’s no bomb drills in Israel. That’s real.’ And then the next thing we knew, the hotel loudspeaker was telling everyone to get to the bomb shelter immediately.”

Savetsky said she and her family were in and out of the shelter all day and not knowing where her husband and middle daughter were made the experience even more devastating.

Eventually reunited, her husband and other men continued their prayer service in the bomb shelter. 

“They were singing. They all had their prayer shawls on. I think they even brought one of the Torahs into the bomb shelter because we felt like the only thing that we had control over, the only thing that we could do at that point was to hold on to our belief in God and to hold on to each other and really stay strong in our faith in those moments,” she said.

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FOX News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.