While Israel Slept : How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East

While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East | By Amir Bohbot & Yaakov Katz

Format: Paperback
Pages: 323
Date of Release: 21 October 2025

While Israel Slept is a compelling, deeply reported investigation into the political, military, and intelligence failures that led to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack—one of the most shocking events in modern Middle Eastern history. Written by acclaimed Israeli journalists Amir Bohbot and Yaakov Katz, this book examines how Israel’s weakest enemy managed to carry out a devastating surprise assault on one of the world’s most advanced and powerful militaries.

Drawing on insider accounts, intelligence leaks, military analyses, and years of on-the-ground reporting, the authors reveal how complacency, flawed intelligence assessments, and an overconfident belief in deterrence allowed Hamas to prepare for an operation Israel dismissed as impossible.

The book takes readers through:

• Years of strategic miscalculations and political paralysis
• Missed warnings and ignored intelligence signals
• The night before the attack, exposing cracks within Israel’s decision-making systems
• How a misguided policy of containment enabled Hamas to grow stronger in the shadows

A sobering indictment of systemic failure, While Israel Slept delivers urgent lessons for Israel’s future security while offering readers a clear, unflinching look at a moment that reshaped the Middle East.

Essential reading for anyone interested in geopolitics, military strategy, intelligence studies, Middle East history, and contemporary global conflicts.

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