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Steven Emerson,
Executive Director
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May 1, 2015
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New
Details From Israeli Intelligence on Planned Hamas Mega Attack in Gaza War
by Steven Emerson
IPT News
May 1, 2015
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 Multiple
Israeli news outlets, including the Jerusalem Post, Arutz Sheva, Al Monitor, and the Times of Israel, this week reported newly
declassified details of a planned surprise Hamas mega attack during the
first week of the Gaza War last summer through underground tunnels built
under Israeli territory. If the plot, first reported on Army Radio, had
been successful, large numbers of Israeli civilians would have been
slaughtered and captured.
According to the reports, Hamas planned to take the kidnapped Israeli
civilians to secret underground hiding places, and then use them as
bargaining chips to free Hamas terrorists imprisoned by Israel. The plan
follows a similar blueprint to the way Hamas pressured Israel to release 1,000 terrorists in exchange for kidnapped
Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006.
The well rehearsed Hamas plot involved sending scores of well trained
Hamas terrorists dressed in IDF [Israel Defense Forces] uniforms through a
labyrinth of secret Hamas tunnels burrowed under Israeli territory and
exiting near the kibbutz community of Keren Hashalom.
Had the unprecedented operation succeeded, Israeli analysts say it not
only could have changed the course of the war, it also could have altered
the existing dynamics between superior Israeli forces against the
once-thought inferior Hamas terrorists for many years to come. A successful
attack of this magnitude would have represented the most catastrophic and
far-reaching terrorist plot ever undertaken by Hamas in its 26-year
history.
Hamas prepared for various aspects of the mission: One unit of the
attack group was to battle incoming Israeli soldiers giving time to other
units to murder Israelis – and most importantly – capture a large number of
civilians to take them back to Gaza.
A senior Israeli military official told the Investigative Project on
Terrorism that there was even a more paramount goal: Hamas hoped the attack
would lure large numbers of Israeli troops into the densely packed streets
of Gaza. Those streets would have been rigged with thousands of mines and
improvised explosive devises by Hamas.
Hamas also built concealed strategic hideouts, established rocket
launching pads and military bases at hospitals and schools—including those belonging to the United Nations —and dug more tunnels
inside Gaza from which they would be able to launch attacks against Israeli
forces almost at whim.
According to the Times of Israel, the attack
"was intended to force Israeli leaders to respond with a massive
ground assault in the Strip, where Hamas had spent months rigging
explosives and digging tunnels that would allow its fighters to exact a
steep cost from any IDF incursion force."
The operation was devised by Mohammed Deif, the very secretive head of Hamas' Izz
ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Under his leadership, Hamas killed hundreds of
Israeli civilians. For years, the IDF and Israeli intelligence tried to
target him for assassination but failed largely because he had become so
adept at changing his location and looks and also avoided electronic communications
to evade detection. (Israel did manage to locate his apartment near the end
of the war and launch a missile strike against his home. He survived but
his family did not.)
Deif's operation was all set to go, but at the last moment, Hamas leader
Khaled Meshaal suddenly called it off. The reason? Meshaal feared a massive and devastating Israeli military
response.
According to Israeli intelligence sources, the terrorist organization's
military wing vehemently disagreed with Meshaal's decision. The ensuing
tension between Hamas' military wing and its political leadership affected
the terrorist organization's decision-making throughout the war. Deif
blamed Msshaal and the political wing for denying the group an historic
success. Meshaal, in turn, consistently urged Hamas fighters to continue
the war despite calls from within the military wing to accept a cease-fire
a few weeks before the war's official end. By this point, Israel destroyed
a significant portion of the terrorist group's capabilities and terrorist
infrastructure, including many of its underground offensive tunnels.
Still, Deif tried to launch similar mega tunnel operations. On July 17,
13 heavily armed Hamas terrorists suddenly emerged on Israeli soil from a
tunnel that opened up near the southern town of Sufa. Their plan, according
to Israeli military sources, was to massacre as many Israeli civilians as
possible in the towns just a quarter of mile away. Fortunately, Israeli
military helicopters spotted the terrorists as they emerged from the
tunnels and wiped them out.
This scene, according to Arutz Sheva, "sent shock
waves through the Israeli public, which had never seen such a chilling
sight or imagined it possible. The video of the incident was a major factor
in prodding the government to decide on a ground offensive into Gaza, and
guaranteed support from the public and media."
Nearly a year after the war, Hamas is diverting cement and construction
material intended for civilian rebuilding efforts in order to reconstruct
its offensive terrorist capabilities, despite U.S. pledges that this
wouldn't happen. According to Al-Monitor Hamas' "tunnel-digging enterprise continues at full throttle, with more than 1,000 people enlisted for
the job. The shortage of cement does not hamper their work, because Hamas
has found replacement materials."
Instead of rebuilding homes for its people, Hamas uses heavy machinery and small bulldozers to restore
its vast tunnel network that can be used in future attacks against Israel..
Hamas is even acquiring new and longer-range rockets from Iran, the new
U.S. partner in the "nuclear framework."
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