Israeli military investigation reveals details of Hamas spying on 100,000 soldiers and their equipment
The Israeli military investigation revealed that Hamas has collected accurate intelligence about the Israeli army and soldiers for years and years.
Reports indicate that military investigations revealed that Hamas spent years gathering sensitive intelligence on IDF bases and equipment, especially tanks and their operations, through soldiers’ activity on social media, allowing the group to disable tanks and raid army bases during its October 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel.
A specialized Hamas intelligence unit built a detailed database over several years by compiling thousands of social media posts posted by soldiers, including photos and videos, with a particular focus on the Merkava M-4 tank, the most advanced armored vehicle in the IDF’s arsenal.
According to the report, the details of which were published by The Times of Israel newspaper, Hamas learned that there was a hidden kill button in the tank that disabled the vehicle and rendered it unusable, and they used this during their attacks on IDF bases along the Gaza border on October 7, especially during their attack on the Nahal Oz base, where 53 soldiers were killed and 10 others were kidnapped.
It was only revealed to the military how well the group understood the IDF’s bases and equipment when soldiers found a tunnel complex in early 2024 containing intelligence data on military sites, vehicles and units, which was largely collected by monitoring the social media accounts of some 100,000 Israeli soldiers.
The tunnel complex, dubbed the Pentagon by the Israeli military, is reportedly located under refugee camps in central Gaza.
The underground complex contains maps, intelligence reports, virtual reality simulations and life-size models of military equipment that Hamas has collected over a period of nearly five years.
According to the report, Hamas-affiliated intelligence units used the facility as a headquarters for a meticulous intelligence and training program that lasted for years, and relied largely on open-source information leaked by soldiers online.
The facility was also used as an underground training base for the movement’s elite force, which established a unit specifically trained to operate IDF tanks using intelligence gathered via social media.
While Hamas’s special tank unit was initially supposed to seize the tanks and push them into Gaza for use against the Israeli army in battle, the operatives failed to do so on the day of the attacks and only succeeded in disabling the tanks, according to the report.
However, the group’s success in disabling the tanks baffled IDF commanders at the time, as they were unsure how Hamas fighters would discover the hidden kill key in the Merkava M-4 tank until the army found the database of Hamas’ intelligence unit.
The intelligence unit, which reportedly consists of about 2,500 members, has set up tens of thousands of fake social media accounts to follow hundreds of thousands of IDF soldiers in the hope that the soldiers will disseminate sensitive and confidential information about their equipment and bases.
Over a five-year period beginning in 2018, Hamas collected and studied data, and produced intelligence reports that the army’s investigations said rivaled the army’s own special operations files.
The unit was also able to infiltrate the internal WhatsApp groups of various IDF units by creating fake profiles, which they used to track individual soldiers from the moment they were drafted until they were promoted to officers and even high-ranking commanders.
According to the Israeli military report, Hamas’ Military Intelligence Unit issued daily reports on the routine activity of the IDF, detailing the location of each military company, the location of each Iron Dome battery, and whether the army had made changes to the deployment of troops or the quiet transfer of troops between sectors.
He stated that the group analyzed thousands of real-time data points from social networks and built accurate models of the IDF’s bases and equipment in virtual reality simulators, which were used to train elite customers.
Israeli Army Radio quoted an officer as saying that “the army was aware of some of the training models used by Hamas, but said that ‘we never imagined how accurate they were'”.
Another officer said: “Hamas knew the rules better than I did, and I served there for many years”.
A document detailing the exact design of the base, including shelters, barracks, generator rooms, communications antennas, surveillance cameras, and operations room was also found in Gaza.
Hamas knew where the commanders slept, how effective the shelters were against rockets, how many soldiers carried weapons, and what type of weapons they had.
The attack on Nahal Oz, located just 850 meters from the border with the Gaza Strip, was perhaps the most successful attack launched by the group in its attack on October 7, 2023.
The base, which has 162 soldiers, 90 of them militants, has served as a military outpost for combat soldiers because of its proximity to Gaza, as well as a command center for the Border Protection Corps’ 414th Combat Reconnaissance Unit, whose members operate surveillance cameras looking toward the Strip.
In March, The Times of Israel reported that the Israeli military’s investigation into the Hamas-led attack on the Nahal Oz base found that the group knew how many troops were deployed at the base on any given date, as well as the best time to attack, how long it would take the army to send backup troops to the base, and what were the best ways to get to the base.
