A small cell of Hamas operatives allegedly planned the October 7 surprise attack on Israel by communicating with each other through telephone lines installed in underground tunnels in Gaza, Israeli intelligence sources shared with the United States suggest. The attack was planned for two years.
Phone lines in the tunnels allowed agents to communicate in secret without being tracked by Israeli intelligence officials, the sources told CNN .
During the two years, the small cell operating in the tunnels used landlines to communicate and plan the operation, but remained in the dark until it was time to summon hundreds of Hamas fighters to launch the October 7 attack, they added.
“There wasn’t a lot of discussion, back-and-forth and coordination outside the immediate area,” one of the sources said.
Intelligence shared with U.S. officials by Israel reveals how Hamas hid planning for the operation with long-standing counterintelligence measures, such as holding in-person planning meetings and shutting down digital communications, whose signals the Israelis can track.
Israel was aware that Hamas used wired communications systems before the October attack.
This would give new insight into why Israel and the US were caught off guard by the Hamas attack, which left thousands dead.
A CNN did not have access to the information itself, but spoke to sources who had access to it.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment, and the Israeli embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
A CNN previously reported that a series of strategic warnings from US and Israeli intelligence agencies did not lead authorities in either country to anticipate the events of October 7.
A third source familiar with the latest information said Iran helped Hamas develop its operational security tactics over the years, although U.S. intelligence does not believe Iran played a direct role in planning the 7 of October.
More about the tunnels
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) colloquially refer to the tunnels built by Hamas over the past 15 years as the “Gaza metro”.
The tunnels constitute a vast labyrinth that is used to store rockets and hide ammunition, as well as providing a means for agents to move around without being noticed.
The IDF also claims that the tunnels contain important Hamas command and control centers.
Yocheved Lifshitz, an 85-year-old woman who was one of two hostages released by Hamas on Monday (23), said that, after being kidnapped, she was taken to the network of tunnels and slept on a mattress in one of them on the floor.
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Source: CNN Brasil
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