The terrorists also infiltrated private accounts and online groups to build accurate pictures of IDF forces.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Hamas mined 100,000 soldiers’ social media accounts for several years before its Oct. 7, 2023, invasion, obtaining vital security data that enabled its successful attacks on IDF forces, Army Radio reported Sunday.
For five years, the terror group’s intelligence arm — some 2,500 men — combed through millions of publicly available posts to build detailed pictures not only of IDF operations but of real-time changes.
This included soldiers’ and base routines, the number and location of specific forces, even sensitive ones such as the placement of Iron Dome batteries and elite units – all pieced together by cross-referencing tens of thousands of soldiers’ words, pictures and videos online.
In addition, the Hamas division created avatar accounts of such high quality that they fooled both lower- and higher-ranking soldiers into granting access to private accounts, becoming Facebook friends or Instagram followers who could extract data even from more security-minded individuals.
Whatsapp groups were not immune, either.
The Hamas spies managed to implant “shadow” accounts into IDF-linked groups, such as recruits to the elite Egoz unit, the report said.
This allowed the terrorists to follow groups of soldiers throughout their training and eventual rise in rank.
In this way, the report said, Hamas “managed to maintain a broad situational picture on almost every company or battalion in the IDF.”
One particularly troubling discovery was Hamas’ knowledge of a secret internal “kill switch” that could temporarily disable the IDF’s Merkava 4 tank.
An advanced Nukhba force trained specifically to take over such tanks and bring them back to Gaza, which they attempted during the attack on the Nahal Oz base.
While unsuccessful in stealing tanks, the forces did manage to disable several, which “shocked” and baffled the IDF — until the extent of Hamas’ intelligence work became clear.
The army discovered the scope of Hamas’ preparation early last year, the report said, when soldiers found the division’s base located under refugee camps in central Gaza.
They nicknamed the tunnel network “the Pentagon” after finding stores of intelligence reports, maps, and even virtual reality simulators and realistic models of IDF equipment that Hamas’ elite forces had trained on.
The report also confirmed earlier accounts that Hamas had built detailed models of IDF outposts, knew where vital sites like control rooms, armories, security cameras and readiness squads were located, and practiced attacking them.
Some female IDF observers on border posts even witnessed parts of this training, but their reports were ignored by those higher up in the chain of command.
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