On the morning of October 7th, just about two hours from the time that Muhammad

Dyev inaugurated Operation Al-Axa flood, in which Hamas soldiers invaded Israeli territory,

killed, tortured, and abused Israeli civilians, and seized Israeli

hostages. Just about two hours from that time, Israel declared a state of alert for war,

and about two hours after that, the Israeli Air Force began attacking military targets in Gaza.

A large-scale Israeli ground invasion would not take place until October 28th, some three weeks later.

In those three weeks, we were told that Israel's Air Force was softening the ground for the incursion of ground forces

and giving Palestinian civilians time to vacate the battlefield.

So now we can ask, what happened during those three weeks?

Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. My guest this week is the retired

IDF Brigadier General and Defense Strategist, somebody with enormous experience in military planning,

the Liz and Moni Raouven International Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy,

Asaf Orione. I wanted to understand how Israel staged the air campaign, how it would help the next

phase featuring troops on the ground. What were the Air Force objectives? Were they met?

How did bombs and missiles penetrate subterranean targets,

Hamas' famous underground infrastructure, and how could they avoid hostage fatalities?

This week, we hear a preliminary retrospective on this early phase in Israel's campaign to

destroy Hamas, liberate Gaza, return hostages, and recover a measure of safety

for its civilians.

If you enjoy this conversation,

you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast

on Apple Podcasts,

...