Reports from around 15 intelligence officials from Western and Middle Eastern countries, compiled by The Washington Post, revealed that Hamas had meticulously planned their Oct 7 attack for well over a year, intentionally luring Israel into a false sense of security in the years leading up to that attack.
Their preparation was largely concealed even as militants conducted above- and below-ground military training with imported AK-47s, grenades, and thermobaric projectiles. The attack was even kept from Hamas’s political leaders and allies including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, Washington Post reports. A report from the Wall Street Journal, however, said that Iran had "green lit" the attack at a meeting in the weeks leading up to it.
Drones were used to surveil highly populated areas and military bases around Israel’s $1 billion barrier system, built to wall off Gaza, to identify potential targets.
Gazan day laborers who were permitted to enter Israel also relayed information to the terrorist group. They often worked in the farming kibbutzes that were eventually targeted which Hamas was simultaneously studying via Israel geo mapping websites.
As a small group of elite military planners handled logistical preparations for the attack, other Hamas leaders began a mass deception, telling Israel that “Hamas wants no more wars,” as stated by Israel's former chief of Palestinian affairs Michael Milshtein. This was seemingly supported by Hamas refraining from joining in on ongoing attacks on Israel by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Israel granted 20,000 work permits to Gazan laborers and allowed financial support to the tune of over $30 million monthly from Qatar and the European Union to flow to Gaza for economic and structural development.
Hamas, meanwhile, deceived Israel by using two different communication systems, one of which was just for show. One that could be intercepted by Israeli listening posts and one that could not be accessed by them.
“They were conning Israel on a strategic level, using handheld radios, land-wire networks in the tunnels and other comms that we couldn’t listen to, while using codes on the so-called open networks, which they knew we were listening to,” said Eran Etzion, former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council. “They were creating an alternative reality.”
Amos Yadlin, the former head of Israel’s defense intelligence stated Israel “allowed a Palestinian army to be built by Hamas and kept telling itself that Hamas could be deterred.”
“Israel had been deceived,” he said.
