Hamas rehearsed for Israel attack in plain sight, posted video of mock assault

“Or maybe they were picked up, but they didn’t spark necessary preparations to prevent these horrific terrorist acts from happening.”

Associated Press reviewed more than 100 videos Hamas released over the last year, primarily through the social media app Telegram. Using satellite imagery, AP was able to verify key details, as well as identify five sites Hamas used to practice shooting and blowing holes in Israel’s border defences.

AP matched the location of the mocked-up settlement from the September 12 video to a patch of desert outside Al-Mawasi, a Palestinian town on the southern coast of the Gaza Strip. A large sign in Hebrew and Arabic at the gate says “Horesh Yaron”, the name of a controversial Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

How secretive Hamas commander masterminded attack on Israel

Bowman said there are indications that Hamas intentionally led Israeli officials to believe it was preparing to carry out raids in the West Bank, rather than Gaza. It was also potentially significant that the exercise has been held annually since 2020 in December, but was moved up by nearly four months this year to coincide with the anniversary of Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.

In a separate video posted to Telegram from last year’s Strong Pillar exercise on December 28, Hamas fighters are shown storming what appears to be a mock-up Israeli military base, complete with a full-size model of a tank flying an Israeli flag. The gunmen move through the cinderblock buildings, seizing and cuffing other men playing the roles of Israeli soldier hostages.

AP matched the location where the video was taken to a site near the town of Beit Hanoun, less than 800 metres (half a mile) from the Israeli border wall. Satellite images show increased activity at the compound over the last year, with the addition of concrete structures and what appear to be large tents.

Michael Milshtein, a retired Israeli colonel who previously led the military intelligence department overseeing the Palestinian territories, said he was aware of the Hamas videos, but was still caught off guard by the ambition and scale of Saturday’s attack.

“We knew about the drones, we knew about booby traps, we knew about cyberattacks and the marine forces. The surprise was the coordination between all those systems,” Milshtein said.

The seeds of Israel’s failure to anticipate and stop Saturday’s attack go back at least a decade. Faced with recurring attacks from Hamas militants tunnelling under Israel’s border fence, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a concrete solution – build a bigger wall.

With financial help from US taxpayers, Israel completed construction of a $1.1 billion project to fortify its existing defences along its 64km (40-mile) land border with Gaza in 2021.

The new, upgraded barrier includes a “smart fence” up to six-metres (19.7 feet) high, festooned with cameras that can see in the dark, razor wire and seismic sensors capable of detecting the digging of tunnels more than 60 metres (200 feet) below. Manned guard posts were replaced with concrete towers topped with remote-controlled machine guns.

Iran says nuclear scientist killed by remote-controlled machine gun

“In our neighbourhood, we need to protect ourselves from wild beasts,” Netanyahu said in 2016, referring to Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states. “At the end of the day as I see it, there will be a fence like this one surrounding Israel in its entirety.”

Shortly after dawn on Saturday, Hamas fighters pushed through Netanyahu’s wall in a matter of minutes. And they did it on the relative cheap, using explosive charges to blow holes in the barrier and then sending in bulldozers to widen the breaches as fighters streamed through on motorcycles and in pickup trucks.

Cameras and communications gear were bombarded by grenades and mortar shells dropped from off-the-shelf, commercial drones – a tactic borrowed directly from the battlefields of Ukraine.

Snipers took out Israel’s sophisticated roboguns by targeting their exposed ammunition boxes, causing them to explode. Militants armed with assault rifles used paragliders to sail over the Israeli defences, providing Hamas airborne troops despite lacking planes. Increasingly sophisticated home-made rockets, capable of striking Israel’s capital of Tel Aviv, substituted for a lack of heavy artillery.

Satellite images analysed by AP show the massive extent of the damage done at the heavily fortified Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel. The images taken Sunday showed gaping holes in three sections of the border wall, the largest more than 70 metres (230 feet) wide.

Once the wall was breached, Hamas fighters streamed through by the hundreds. A video showed a lone Israeli battle tank rushing to the sight of the attack, only to be attacked and destroyed in a ball of flame. Hamas then disabled radio towers and radar sites, probably impeding the ability of Israeli commanders to see and understand the extent of the attack.

Hamas forces also struck a nearby army base near Zikim, engaging in an intense firefight with Israeli troops before overrunning the post. Videos posted by Hamas show graphic scenes with dozens of dead Israeli soldiers.

They then fanned out across the countryside of Southern Israel, attacking kibbutzim and a music festival. On the bodies of some of the Hamas militants killed during the invasion were detailed maps showing planned zones and routes of attack, according to images posted by Israeli first responders who recovered some of the corpses.

Israel car park becomes ‘world’s largest underground hospital’

Israeli authorities announced on Wednesday they had recovered the bodies of about 1,500 Islamic fighters, though no details were provided about where they were found or how they died.

Military experts told AP the attack showed a level of sophistication not previously exhibited by Hamas, suggesting they probably had external help.

“I just was impressed with Hamas’s ability to use basics and fundamentals to be able to penetrate the wall,” said retired US Army lieutenant colonel Stephen Danner, a combat engineer trained to build and breach defences. “They seemed to be able to find those weak spots and penetrate quickly and then exploit that breach.”

Ali Barakeh, a Beirut-based senior Hamas official, acknowledged that over the years the group had received supplies, financial support, military expertise and training from its allies abroad, including Iran and Hezbollah. But he insisted the recent operation to breach Israel’s border defences was home-grown, with the exact date and time for the attack known only to a handful of commanders within Hamas.

Details of the operation were kept so tight, Barakeh said, that some Hamas fighters who took part in the assault Saturday believed they were heading to just another drill, showing up in street clothes rather than their uniforms.

Last weekend’s devastating surprise attack has shaken political support for Netanyahu within Israel, who pushed ahead with spending to build walls despite some within his own cabinet and military warning that it probably would not work.

In the days since Hamas struck, senior Israeli officials have largely deflected questions about the wall and the apparent intelligence failure. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces, acknowledged the military owes the public an explanation, but said now is not the time.

“First, we fight, then we investigate,” he said.

Biden to build more Mexico wall, says hands were tied

In Netanyahu’s push to build border walls, he found an enthusiastic partner in then US President Donald Trump, who praised the Iron Wall as a potential model for the expanded barrier he planned for the US Southern border with Mexico.

Under Trump, the US expanded a joint initiative with Israel started under the Obama Administration to develop technologies for detecting underground tunnels along the Gaza border defences. Since 2016, Congress has appropriated US$320 million toward the project.

But even with all its hi-tech gadgets, the Iron Wall was still largely just a physical barrier that could be breached, said Victor Tricaud, a senior analyst with the London-based consulting firm Control Risks.

“The fence, no matter how many sensors … no matter how deep the underground obstacles go, at the end of the day, it’s effectively a metal fence,” he said. “Explosives, bulldozers can eventually get through it. What was remarkable was Hamas’s capability to keep all the preparations under wraps.”