‘Where was everybody?’ Israel has been caught unawares by Hamas and faces a perilous challenge
“Where have you been? Where was everybody?” The questions were being screamed at soldiers on a highway by a man stricken with grief.
His brother had had only a week left to go in the army but was killed today in a shootout with Hamas on Israeli soil.
The entire country wants those questions answered. Where was the army when Israelis needed them most as Hamas swept into their cities and homes and wreaked such murderous havoc?
Read more: At least four US citizens killed – latest updates
There is a sense of powerlessness, bewilderment and fear among Israelis and it is astonishing to witness. Something seems to have shifted, fundamentally.
For Israelis living in one of the world’s most dangerous neighbourhoods there were two things they could rely on.
Their military and their intelligence agencies. Israelis have always believed their generals and spymasters would keep them safe and most of all manage the Hamas menace.
That was, it turns out, delusional and complacent and the country is paying the price for such hubris.
Israeli soldiers look on at the remains of a police station in Sderot, southern Israel
Read more:
‘Up to 700’ Israelis dead in Hamas attacks
‘Terrorists are in my bedroom’
Hamas has always improved its capability aided by outside help. It was only a matter of time before it would reach a step change in capability.
It’s not yet clear quite how Hamas was able to raise its game so spectacularly though.
In a moral sense they have plumbed new depths, seizing as hostages the elderly, the infirm, women and children and parading them in harrowing videos. In what may be the worst outrage of the last day or so, there are also reports of 250 bodies at the site of a music festival.
Young people from around the world were dancing celebrating music and peace when Hamas fighters appeared in jeeps, on motorbikes and in the air in paragliders and began the slaughter. Some have been dragged back to Gaza joining scores of other hostages.
Explosions in Gaza City
Israel has been caught unawares and found wanting. It will want to reassert the power of its deterrence. It cannot afford not to but it faces a perilous challenge.
Taking on Hamas in the densely populated Gaza strip has never been straightforward.
But this time there is an added complication. Hamas has taken scores of Israelis hostage. They will be spread across the Gaza strip used as human shields. That is a new challenge Israel has not had to face on this scale before.
What else has the metamorphosed Hamas in store for its enemy both in Gaza and in Israel? How many more cells of Hamas fighters remain on the loose on Israel soil like the ones that killed the young man’s brother?
Hamas seems more resourceful, better trained, better armed and far better at strategy. When the Israeli tanks and newly mobilised troops go into Gaza can they expect more surprises? The balance in military power feels like it has shifted dramatically in little over 24 hours. Israel will need to address that. Does it have what it takes?
Elon Musk could be on track for a $1trn pay packet.
Tesla shareholders have approved the whopping financial package for the CEO – who’s already worth an estimated $491bn – if he hits a series of ambitious targets over the next 10 years.
But that $1trn figure (or £761,910,000,000) – which is both one thousand billion and one million million – is almost impossible to imagine for most people.
Even so, we have drilled down into the numbers and examined what you can do with a trillion US dollars – and it turns out, quite a lot.
Show me the money
Laid end to end, a trillion one-dollar bills would cover a distance of approximately 156 billion metres.
That could wrap around the equator 3,890 times, easily reach the sun from Earth (around 149.6 million km) or loop from Earth to the moon 405 times.
That many one-dollar notes could cover a massive area (roughly 10,339 km squared), meaning you could blanket nearly all of Lebanon or Jamaica in bills.
Spend it on sport
You could splash out on virtually all of the world’s major sporting leagues.
The clubs which make up the Premier League are relatively cheap ($30bn), and even when snapping up the UEFA Champions League clubs and the big five top divisions of Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, there’s still $858bn left in the kitty.
The four major US sports leagues for ice hockey, baseball, basketball, and American football (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) have a rough valuation of $544bn, according to Sportico.
But then add the IPL cricket league ($120bn) and F1 ($23.1bn) and Musk still has change from an estimated total spend of $829.7bn.
Elon Musk is in the money if he hits targets set by Tesla’s shareholders. File pic: AP
Take over Tesla’s rivals
He could buy up the top 15 largest publicly traded automakers (excluding Tesla) by market capitalisation.
They would include firms like Japan’s Toyota ($275bn), Chinese automaker BYD ($120bn), and luxury brands like Ferrari ($81bn) and Mercedes-Benz ($62bn), as well as BMW ($52bn), Volkswagen ($50bn) and Ford ($48bn).
But there would still be a little change left over; the total bill would be an eye-watering $992bn.
Buy up San Diego
He could buy up every single residential property in San Diego County – valued at a total of $1trn. Seattle is just slightly out of reach at $1.1trn, according to recent data from real estate firm Zillow.
But if he wanted to buy big – there is always Tennessee. The total value of homes in the US state is estimated at $957bn. Or there is Maryland, which at $1.01trn could be bought if he can find a little more cash behind the sofa.
Sadly, he would struggle to scoop up London’s entire housing stock, which in February was valued at just under £2trn ($2.53trn), according to agents Savills.
Cities like New York ($4.6trn) and Los Angeles ($3.9trn) are also not within his budget, hosting America’s most expensive residential markets.
Do something charitable?
There is always the possibility Musk could follow in the footsteps of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who intends to give away 99% of his vast fortune over the next 20 years.
He could give every single man, woman, and child in the US a share of his cash pile. They would receive approximately $2,917.32 (£2,223.29), based on a population estimate of 342.7 million.
Although it would be roughly $14,348.79 (£10,935.20) for every person (roughly 69.6 million) in the UK.
If he wanted to give the entire globe an early Christmas present, then based on the rough world population estimate of 8.2 billion, everyone would receive $121.80 (£92.87).
Pay off the credit card
With $1trn, he could instantly rewrite history and erase debt interest payments and the government debt from dozens of the world’s sovereign nations.
Or Musk could wipe out the debts of Singapore ($1trn) or South Korea ($0.99trn) in one go, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook (Oct 2025).
But when it comes to the biggest debt-laden countries, $1trn would not even touch the sides.
The US has $38.3trn of government debt (just over one third of the total global debt pile) while the UK has a modest $4.1trn.
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024