Eliminating hundreds of targets in its now five-day running conflict with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Israel has again proved its exceptional intelligence apparatus.
While the civilian casualties might seem high — at least eight Israelis and 100 Palestinians have died thus far — the nature of this conflict makes civilian casualties exceptionally difficult to avoid. That’s partly because Hamas actively targets Israeli civilians and hides behind Palestinian civilians, and partly because Gaza is a densely populated urban environment. That is to say, a place where military targets are literally woven into the civilian architecture. Some educational facilities in Gaza double as weapons factories and actual colleges, for example.
The simple truth: Were Israel’s intelligence capability in Gaza not so good, we would see far greater casualties. Israel’s intelligence portfolio allows Israel to identify, monitor, and strike Hamas and Islamic Jihad forces in relative segregation from civilians. But how do the Israel Defense Forces and intelligence community actually do it?
One area is human intelligence.
Contrary to Hamas’s claims that it represents an ordained group of ideologically pure individuals, the group is riddled with Israeli spies. Many of these spies are motivated by money, others by Israel’s coercive pressure for their cooperation. Regardless, this network of agents allows Israel a near-persistent awareness of where Hamas officers are operating. It’s not just the agents. Special operations units from the Israeli border police and the IDF’s Duvdevan, Maglan, and Egoz units operate across Gaza. Disguised as Palestinians and sometimes even as Hamas fighters, they take great risks to gather real-time intelligence on Hamas movements and plans. If compromised, they know they’ll be killed or captured and tortured.
These efforts are supported by operators from the IDF’s Unit 8200 signal intelligence service. Covertly accessing the most secure of Hamas command and residential structures, vehicles, and logistics networks, and capturing cellphone and internet traffic in situ, 8200 and similar units allow the IDF to detect by who, how, when, and where the terrorist group is operating. Hamas encryption assets are woefully inadequate to obstruct these efforts successfully.
Finally, just as Israel deploys surveillance vessels off Gaza’s coast, IDF jets, drones, and surveillance aircraft saturate Gaza’s skies with intelligence and strike coverage. The integration of these capabilities joins to a command and control authority that allows for rapid decision-making. This means that when a target is fixed in location, or civilians depart the prospective target zone, the IDF can act quickly and effectively.
An example was provided overnight, on Thursday, when Israel apparently killed dozens of Hamas fighters, including commanders. The IDF did so by misleading Hamas into believing an IDF ground offensive was imminent. Preparing for that offensive, the fighters entered their tunnel network. The network was then bombed by 160 different Israeli aircraft.
Where does this leave us?
Well, at the strategic level, Israeli intelligence capabilities are translating into a potent political reality: increasing Hamas desperation for a ceasefire and commensurately increasing Israeli confidence that it has restored deterrent credibility.
