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The New York Times discloses, one week after the massacre of Israelis in a Hamas attack on southern Israel, how well-prepared the terrorists were and how broad Israel’s intelligence failure was.
According to Ynet News, heavily armed Hamas commando soldiers infiltrated utilizing maps and exact plans to strike specific locations, knowing the IDF’s defensive weak spots.
The investigation report was based on at least one paper discovered in the possession of a deceased terrorist, recordings shot by the invaders themselves, and interviews with people in the know.
It revealed the terror group’s startling insight into the workings of the IDF, including the location of individual units and how long it would take reinforcements to arrive after the Hamas attack.
Hamas entered the country with the help of heavy rocket fire on Israel, as well as a major invasion by land, air, and sea. According to the article, Hamas dispatched UAVs to damage communication towers and observation stations along the Gaza border, leaving blind spots, while bulldozers burst through the border fence, allowing hundreds to cross in the first wave. According to YNet News, an additional 1,800 people joined the first attackers.
In addition to the civilian neighborhoods, the terrorists assaulted at least eight military bases. According to the New York Times, the footage from the terrorists’ head cameras revealed the invasion of the bases and the massacre of troops within them, with soldiers being killed in their sleep.
According to a military officer, the terrorists knew the specific location of communication servers at some of the bases and destroyed them so that the extent of the attack would not be exposed and a call for help would not be issued quickly.
According to Ynet News, soldiers stationed near the border were overpowered and unable to withstand the onslaught, which resulted in a horrendous massacre of residents that lasted for hours.
One video obtained by New York Times reporters, and taken by the commander of the 10-man terror team who was subsequently slain, revealed an intelligence base that the terrorists knew about and was among the first to be attacked, approached by men on motorcycles, firing at civilian cars on the way, who blew up the unmanned gate and had time to take selfies of themselves inside, Ynet News reported.
They struggled at first to determine the layout of the base and relied on maps provided in advance. They then walked through an unlocked door of a guarded facility into a room containing computers described as an intelligence hub by the New York Times. They discovered two troops hiding under a bed and shot and killed them.
Only hours later did security personnel arrive and destroy the militants. According to the story, the video footage capture the moment a terrorist is murdered, displaying the dead guy’s highly bearded face.
Hamas plotted the attack over a lengthy period of time, including military maneuvers in full front of the IDF, although Israeli officials were certain the Gaza-ruling terror group was discouraged and had no interest in war. They believed Hamas was more concerned with improving economic conditions in the Strip after the cost of the 2021 round of fighting.
According to the New York Times, the preparations included careful instructions to terrorists, as evidenced by a document discovered on the body of a deceased terrorist. It was dated October 2022, indicating preparations were ongoing for at least a year, Ynet News reported.
The document discovered by volunteers supporting rescue crews in one of the border settlements revealed that the terrorists were organized into units, each with a specific target in mind. Some were given tasks, some were given driving assignments, and a third group was told to fire artillery rounds to offer cover.
One team was directed to launch an attack from a specified direction. The document listed the projected number of soldiers stationed nearby, as well as the number of vehicles available to them at their disposal and how long reinforcements would need to arrive, Ynet News reported.
According to the paper, the terrorists were given explicit orders to capture Israelis. “Take soldiers and civilians prisoner and hostage so that we would use them to negotiate,” according to the report.
This contradicts assertions given to Al Jazeera by Salah al Arouri, a senior Hamas official, claiming Hamas solely targeted the military and that the Israelis were abducted by civilians across the breached border fence.
Source:IANS
