NEWSWEEK
‘While Israel Slept’ Exposes How IDF Missed Hamas Plans for Oct. 7 Attack
Yaakov Katz and Amir Bohbot
August 27, 2025

When Hamas invaded Israel on the morning of October 7, 2023, the country was unprepared for the onslaught. Before the Israeli military could regain control, Hamas fighters had killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 more hostage—approximately 50 of whom are still being held, 20 of which are still thought to be alive in captivity almost two years later. For a country on constant alert to threats from its neighbors on all sides, how was Israel’s military caught by surprise? That’s the question former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post Yaakov Katz and military and defense journalist Amir Bohbot interrogate in their new book, While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East. Their book offers an analysis of the massive failure, with the goal of highlighting lessons that should be learned going forward. In this exclusive excerpt, Bohbot and Katz revisit the night before the attack, examining how Israeli intelligence could have prevented the invasion. READ MORE

JPOST NYC protesters disrupt launch of former ‘Post’ editor’s book on Hamas attack Protests erupted on Wednesday outside the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center in Manhattan during the launch of While Israel Slept, a book examining how Hamas managed to surprise Israel’s military on October 7, 2023. The evening, which was meant to showcase a conversation about one of Israel’s darkest days, was repeatedly interrupted as demonstrators sought to drown out the discussion.