A deadly cascade: how secret Hamas attack orders were passed down at last minute
Plan drawn up by handful of leaders was unknown to men who would carry it out until morning of attacks on Israel a month ago
by Jason Burke in Jerusalem
Tue 7 Nov 2023 06.00 CET
The first orders went out before 4am: anyone who had been attending the regular training sessions and was not planning to attend dawn prayers at their usual mosques must go to pray.
An hour later, as the sky began to lighten over Gaza and the congregations began to disperse, new instructions were issued. These too were straightforward and passed mainly by word of mouth: bring your weapons and any ammunition you have and assemble at specific landmarks.
But still no one was told what was about to happen. Operation al-Aqsa Flood, the most ambitious operation launched by Hamas since the extremist Islamist organisation had taken control of Gaza in 2007, was still a secret.
The plan had been formulated by a handful of hardened, veteran Hamas leaders and was still unknown to the men whose violence was about to shatter any passing sense of calm or progress towards a new stability in the Middle East. It was unknown, too, to Israel’s much vaunted military and intelligence services.
The decision to pass instructions verbally to thousands of Hamas militants scattered among Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants was the latest in a series of measures designed to deceive one of the most potent surveillance systems in the world and keep any word of what might be about to happen from a network of spies.
The instructions spread across Gaza in a cascade, given first to the commanders of the “battalions” of a hundred or more, then to leaders of platoons of 20 or 30, who told the squad commanders at the head of a dozen, who passed the message on to the friends, neighbours and relatives who had joined them at the twice weekly drills held in dozens of locations in the enclave.
Only when the men had assembled was extra ammunition and more powerful weaponry distributed. Many had handled such arms over previous months and had returned them to Hamas’s arsenals after each lesson. Soon they were carrying hand-held and rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns, sniper rifles and explosives.
It was now 6am. The sun was up and the final orders were issued. Now, these were written down: the men were to rush through gaps that would soon be blown or smashed through the $1bn perimeter fence around Gaza and attack Israeli soldiers and civilians on the other side.
Bulldozers were used to breach the border fence with Israel from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 7 October. Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock
This account of the early moments of the 7 October terrorist attacks in Israel is derived from multiple sources, including meetings with Israeli intelligence officials, experts, sources with direct knowledge of interrogation reports of Hamas fighters captured during the attacks, and material released by Hamas and the Israeli military.
Though many claims are difficult to verify and have been contested, respected and independent experts on Hamas have described the account as plausible.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... -7-october 
I think I have questions.
