former state department official steve ganyard says this conflict is unlike any other israel has faced. certainly complacency was part of this huge intelligence failure. >> but there's also deeper systemic failures that the israelis will have to figure out . the 73 war was the only other war where they had this sort of failure. but the 73 war was very different. it was nation states. so israel, egypt, and it was force on force. this is hamas and hamas working in small groups using personal encrypted communications infill training israel. so very different kind of failure, but a failure that is inexcusable nonetheless. remember that gaza, it's a 25 mile strip, a couple of miles wide. it is right on the israeli border. and so this is really israel's backyard. the us focuses more on strategic intelligence, both intelligence agencies are going to have to figure out why they didn't pick up on this attack. i think what's also amazing is the operation security that would have been required here. there were probably thousands of hamas fighters that were involved in the preparation and the prac

let's bring in steve ganyard. the big question, how could this happen? what a massive intelligence fail year. >> yeah, and george, there's a saying. complacency kills and certainly complacency was part of this huge intelligence failure, but there's also a deeper systemic failure that the israelis will have to figure out. the '73 war was the only other war where they had this sort of failure, but that was very different. it was nation states, israel and egypt and it was force on force. this is hamas and hamas working in small groups, using personal encrypted communications, infiltrating into israel. so very different kind of failure, but a failure that is inexcusable nonetheless. >> george: we've only seen the beginning so far of the israeli response. all but certain to go into gaza with ground forces? >> yeah. netanyahu's going to have to go into gaza, but hamas knew this, and so hamas has likely beefed up its internal defenses because urban warfare is particularly horrible. think about bakhmut or even when israel went into beirut. it's very, very diffic

let's bring in abc news contributor retired marine colonel steve ganyard.t's israel's next military move? >> we're in phase one. israel continues to root out the hamas invaders, phase two will likely involve an israeli invation of gaza and before that happens, tough choices for netanyahu. he knows that some of the hostages are inside gaza. he knows that hamas has reinforced its defenses there. he can't leave northern flank with lebanon and hezbollah vulnerable. >> linsey: as you say, tough choices for netanyahu. steve, thank you. >>> we'll go back to israel for an update later on "world news tonight." >>> coming up next, relatives dig with their bare hands as they search for survivors after a devastating earthquake in afghanistan. and two months after the fires, maui takes steps to recover. d l. like here. and here. not so much here. if you have chronic kidney disease, farxiga can help you keep living life. ♪ farxiga ♪ and farxiga reduces the risk of kidney failure, which can lead to dialysis. farxiga can cause serious side effects including dehydration, ur

let's bring in steve ganyard. steve, let's pick up where ian just left off. up 300,000 reservists, their largest callup ever. we've got the tanks amassing on the border. what does a ground incursion look like? >> that's hard to say, george, because we don't know what the intent will be. it could be a punitive expedition going in to root out hamas as much as they can. i don't think it will be a full takeover of gaza, 2 million people. that's a large area. the israeli defense force can't afford to commit that much. so we'll watch how the buildup occurs around gaza, then we'll be able to see what the actual intent of the invasion will be. >> as ian said united states and israel labeled hamas a terrorist group, but for years there was a belief that somehow we could work with hamas to administer gaza. that seems to be out the window now. what do you make of this change in tactics by hamas? >> yeah. it's really evolved. netanyahu called them isis today. the group has evolved over time. remember we talked about why this intelligence failure occurred. one was complac

. >>> now i want to bring in abc news contributor steve ganyard, a former defense and state departmentl. steve, thank you so much. first, let's just talk about all this logistical movement, the preparation here. you have hamas paragliding in, going over land and sea, coordinating all at the same time. how long do you imagine that preparations were in the works for? >> months, if not years, linsey. the complexity of this operation is extraordinary. we had seen hamas do these kinds of attacks individually, but we had never seen them coordinated in the way that we did in the past couple of days. i think what's also amazing is the operational security that would have been required here. there were probably thousands of hamas fighters that were involved in the preparation and the practice and the actual execution, but the israelis didn't pick up on any of it. one thing that may have aided them is social media apps like imessage, like whatsapp, like signal that offer end to end encryption and will allow the hamas fighters to have encrypted communications between each other that would be very

let's bring in our military analyst steve ganyard. let's start with the hostage station right now. i would imagine hamas scattered the hostages in different areas. so a special operations action, is that likely? >> it's not likely, george. very, very difficult. as you note, they probably separated the hostages among all the rubble. think about all the rubble that's been created in the bombing. they're hiding in basements. very hard to know where they are. they're probably not using any communications that can be intercept. how do you find where they are? then how do you rescue the hostages without being executed and then extracate them. all while a bombing campaign is going on within gaza. >> we expect the ground operation to go forward by israel. i'm wondering what the end game of that could be though. we know they want to destroy hamas but a long term occupation is so difficult. >> yeah. something has to be done, george, in the minds of the israelis. hamas is gaza and gaza is hamas. i think something will have to be done. think back to the summer of 1945 when harry truman was try

>> going to bring in our military analyst colonel steve ganyard. good to have you in the studio with us. ground assault, it's looming. how do you see this unfolding? >> it's going to be difficult, robin. urban war fare is very very difficult. not only does the battlefield get constrained, but it also is expanded vertically. so we've seen these images from ukraine where you see long range mile, two mile engagements in urban war fare. it may be 100 feet and as close as 6 inches in who may be in the room next to you. so very very difficult, time consuming, very challenging for the troops to execute. this vertical idea. you've seen some of the buildings in gaza. 10, 15 stories. that means the israeli troops are going to have to fight their way to the top all the while being shot down on by hamas. they will have to clear room by room. what's unique about gaza is there's a whole underlying set of tunnels underneath gaza that hamas has had years to develop. the israelis don't know exactly where they are. it gives hamas the ability to move where the israel