War shifts Israel out of Maginot Line mentality

On 7 October 2023, Hamas launched a murderous attack in the vacuum an absent Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had left with the dismantling and disarming of a credible rear-area defence.

The intelligence failure and military unpreparedness were reminiscent of the complacency surrounding the Egyptian and Syrian surprise attacks launched on 6 October 1973. In both instances, a misleading sense of superiority lulled the IDF into a false sense of security, characterised by an unhealthy disregard for the military capabilities of its adversaries.

In the years leading up to 1973, Israel had abandoned its manoeuvre doctrine and relied on the “impregnable” defensive systems of the Bar Lev line straddling the Suez Canal. Again, in 2023, the IDF manned static positions along the Gaza border and relied on state-of-the-art technology to secure its borders.

Fifty years to the day, the IDF once again found itself gripped in a Maginot Line mentality – overinvested in defensive measures, falsely secured behind the Iron Dome, and dangerously ignoring more flexible and adaptive strategies.

It’s no exaggeration to say that 7 October marked the lowest point in the IDF’s 75-year history. Military hubris coupled with a defensive mentality resulted in the loss of thousands of Israelis, dead and wounded, and a couple of hundred hostages. Hamas obtained an enormous strategic victory, and forced the IDF to rescue the Israeli hostages on the defensive ground of Hamas’s choosing – a nightmare of subterranean urban warfare, peppered with fortified and booby-trapped positions in sprawling residential areas still inhabited by hundreds and thousands of civilians.

The prospect of a lengthy, grinding urban conflict, which would inflict massive Palestinian human-shield casualties, went against every IDF military doctrine. Besides the disastrous attritional aspects of urban warfare, the IDF had to contend with the Iranian constructed “Ring of Fire”, which constituted a rain of rockets from Hezbollah, the Houthis, Syria, and the enormous ballistic missile assets of Iran. The overriding necessity to free hostages using a combination of military force, coupled with diplomatic efforts, complicated ground operations in Gaza.

Adding to Israel’s woes was the speedy evaporation of Western support even before Israel had fired one retaliatory shot at Hamas. Doubts were raised whether Israel’s young TikTok-generation soldiers, bereft of combat experience, would have the stomach to wrest control from Hamas, yard by yard, building by building, in lethal house-to-house fighting, and through underground booby-trapped tunnels. Internally, Israel was a nation riven by political division, led by an unpopular government, and facing a global environment increasingly hostile to its actions. Alarm bells rang louder still when the United States, under President Biden, began to withhold critical military aid. Not since October 1973 had Israel’s survival felt so tenuous.

Fortunately for the IDF, Iran and its proxies failed to synchronise their attacks, leaving the IDF to confront each adversary in turn. Hamas’s fighting power was eventually subdued using some of the most innovative urban-warfare doctrine developed in modern combat. Young Israeli soldiers proved equal to the supreme test of urban warfare, the most brutal of all forms of modern warfare. In an innovative blend of combined arms warfare, Israel decapitated Hezbollah in an intelligence operation the likes of which have never been seen before. Thousands of Hezbollah operatives were killed or disabled when their pagers blew up simultaneously – literally in their faces and hands.

The IDF swiftly overcame the much vaunted leaderless and demotivated Hezbollah, removing the threat of its incessant missile attacks. The IDF simultaneously destroyed Hezbollah’s fighting power in Syria, allowing for the removal of Bashar al-Assad and eliminating Syria as an immediate threat. Israel, by securing more territory in the Golan at the expense of Syria, allowed itself to dominate the high ground overlooking Lebanon and Syria. After Hezbollah’s regional grip had been removed, all that remained of the “Ring of Fire” were the distant Houthis and the chastened Iranians, who stood by helplessly as the IDF dismantled their proxies one by one.

Ironically, the Ukrainians nearly gave the game away a few weeks ago when, pre-empting the Israeli operation, they destroyed a significant portion of the Russian strategic air arm in a daring drone attack. Smuggling drones into Russia, they launched a devastating raid that left hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Russian bomber wrecks smouldering across four military airfields, severely degrading Putin’s long-range strike capabilities.

Despite all the warning signs delivered via the successful Ukrainian drone operation on 1 June 2025, the Iranians remained complacent. The tyranny of distance separated them from Israel by 1 500km. They were safely ensconced behind a wall of ballistic missiles that had been stockpiled for years. Their impregnable nuclear assets were subterranean and proof against air attack. Israel wouldn’t dare to attack them while they were in deep negotiations with the United States.

Topping the Hezbollah “pager operation” of September 2024 was never a likely prospect. However, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) and special forces strike against Iran, launched on 12 June 2025, must go down in history as one of the most audacious and ambitious military operations in recent military history. A combination of drones smuggled into Iran ala Ukraine, precision airstrikes, and incredibly accurate intelligence, enabled the IDF to decapitate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, killing 22 Iranian military leaders.

Next to face Israel’s wrath were Iranian air defence systems, followed by the obliteration of dozens of underground missile facilities. Immeasurable damage was dealt to the Iranian nuclear programme, although the IAF doesn’t seem to have the capability to destroy it. Its ultimate destruction, the core objective of the operation, may yet reveal another breathtaking military innovation.

The IAF will roam Iranian airspace with impunity for days to come, steadily and inexorably degrading Iranian fighting power, economic assets, and its ability to produce nuclear weapons. The IDF has finally emerged from the Maginot Line, wielding the enormous shield of the Iron Dome, but now also a mighty sword, forged in the crucible of a two-year war.

• Dr David Brock Katz is a research fellow at Stellenbosch University in the faculty of military science. He has published three books and numerous academic articles dealing with aspects of South African military history and military doctrine.