A document written three weeks before the October 7 Hamas massacre revealed that Israeli intelligence was aware the terror group had plans for mass kidnapping, Israel's public broadcaster Kan reported on Monday.
According to the IDF report from September 19, a series of training drills were conducted by elite Hamas units. In these exercises, the terrorists practiced a raid on Israeli military outposts and kibbutzim, as well as the abduction of soldiers and civilians. They also practiced how to hold the hostages, and to keep them in the Gaza Strip.
The beginning of the IDF document deals with the sequence of the training of the Hamas military wing: “At 11:00 a.m., several companies were observed converging at the beginning of the training session, not before prayer and lunch,” it said. "At 12:00, equipment and weapons were distributed to the terrorists, and then an exercise of the company's headquarters took place. At 2 p.m., the raid began."
The first step in the exercise was breaching an IDF-like outpost. The exercise was carried out by four companies, and each company received a different post. The Israeli intelligence officials formulated the next steps after the raid on Israeli territory and the takeover of the outpost and determined that the order was to hand over the captured soldiers to the company commanders. The estimated number of hostages was between 200 and 250 people.
The report noted that the raid targets were also described in the document: Command and control headquarters, base synagogues, squadron headquarters, communications headquarters and soldiers' quarters. According to the document, the Hamas Nukhba units were given an order that was highlighted: Search the area when you leave and leave no documents behind.
The report also stated that the intelligence of the Southern Command and the Gaza Division also detailed the conditions of the hostages' custody, including instructions to the kidnappers on how to handle extreme cases, how to hold the hostages, and under what conditions they could be executed.
But, despite all this, the most extreme scenario for which the Gaza Division was prepared before the massacre was that of the infiltration of dozens of terrorists in only three locations.
In the Military Intelligence Directorate – and separately in the Shin Bet – there were discussions in July before the attack on Israel’s political-socio-economic situation regarding Israel’s assessment of its enemies. Intelligence officials planned to send decision-makers a letter warning of how Israel’s enemies perceive the internal conflict in the country, but then the war broke out.
The IDF said in response: “The IDF is investigating the events of October 7 and what preceded them. The purpose of the investigations is to learn and draw lessons for the continuation of the war. The investigations are now being carried and when they are finished the findings will be presented transparently to the public.”