A new report by an Israeli TV news channel is shedding light on the work Hamas undertook before its attack in October 2023. According to the report by Channel 12, Hamas monitored Israeli political leaders and communities near the border with Gaza for at least seven years before the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023.
Many of the communities featured in the report were those Hamas attacked. Hamas killed 1,200 people in the attack, prompting Israel’s ongoing war against the group.
The report also features intelligence Israel has taken from Hamas computers during the war, which includes surveillance footage of Israeli border towns. Likewise, the intelligence shows that Hamas had IP addresses for all the security cameras in several towns. The report also says Hamas had case files with separate attack plans for individual towns.
A former top official at Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security intelligence agency, said Hamas had detailed intelligence. The attacks, he added, showed they deployed their intelligence at a very sophisticated level that caught Israel by surprise.
The Israel Defense Forces conducted an internal investigation into how they were caught so unaware on Oct. 7. But so far, the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not appointed a state commission. He has also resisted efforts to look at potential political failures leading up to the attack.
