Hamas was able to deceive unsuspecting Israelis to transport their weapons and explosives for use in terror attacks in Israel, according to documents obtained by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
The classified documents, obtained when the IDF raided a Gaza site belonging to the Palestinian militant group, revealed that the militants contacted Jewish Israelis in Jerusalem to deliver packages in Israel and the West Bank.
Without knowing the content of the packages, the victims were reportedly duped into believing that they were working for their fellow Jews living overseas.
According to the Shin Bet internal security agency, which joined the IDF during the raid, the Hamas operatives used fake social media profiles and published posts in various Facebook groups, saying they were looking for delivery people.
Those who replied to the apparent job posting were then given delivery details on WhatsApp, as Hamas only used text-based messaging and never called the couriers to leave them unexposed.
Apart from weapons, the Israelis received cash and purchased “gifts” to leave at various addresses without coordinating with a recipient.
“Among the places where they were asked to leave the gifts – a synagogue, a cemetery, and the doorsteps of private apartments throughout Israel,” Shin Bet reported.
Intelligence Mistakes
The militants’ successful utilization of Israel’s own people to aid their attacks is a huge blow to the country’s intelligence capabilities.
Prior to the report, concerns about Hamas having someone in Israel to aid their operations surfaced when the IDF found a detailed map of an Israeli military base among the items seized from the Palestinian militants.
An unnamed Israeli intelligence source told The Guardian that the map was “more detailed than would have been required by the IDF itself” and could only be drawn using inside knowledge.
Israel had already admitted some intelligence mistakes in predicting the Hamas attack that took the lives of some 1,200 Israelis, including 250 at an outdoor music festival.
