The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet security agency have uncovered a vast collection of Hamas intelligence documents, computers, and files in Gaza, providing unprecedented insight into the terrorist organization's operations, the Jerusalem Post reports.
The trove of information includes operational tables, equipment lists, classified maps, and instructions for captured operatives. Among the findings were guidelines on how to deal with suspected LGBTQ+ individuals and a Hebrew phrasebook to help terrorists communicate in Hebrew, which included phrases such as "Take off your clothes."
Hamas' unexpected organization
The intelligence cache contained detailed organizational data, including spreadsheets that outlined the preparedness status of various Hamas military units. These ranged from special forces to companies, battalions, and brigades. The documents provided comprehensive information on the extent of their training programs, weaponry, and ammunition supplies.
Additionally, the trove included records of operational directives issued to different units, along with inventories of equipment assigned to individual fighters. The intelligence also contained minutes from meetings, records of strategic discussions, and documentation of decision-making processes at both high-ranking and lower-level echelons within the Hamas organization.
The IDF discovered a wide array of weapons sourced from various countries, including Russia, North Korea, Iran, Egypt, and Libya. The intelligence also exposed Hamas's global operations in regions like Europe, Jordan, Egypt, and the United States, as well as plans to undermine the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Another document detailed a plan to ignite unrest in the West Bank and undermine the Palestinian Authority (PA) by infiltrating its security mechanisms and encouraging internal rebellion to overthrow and take control of the PA gradually.
"The amount of intelligence accumulated so far in the hands of Shin Bet and Military Intelligence allows us to dismantle Hamas from within," a senior security official explained. "Hundreds and thousands of interrogations of terrorists and senior leaders would not have yielded such intimate intelligence on their methods of order and organization in such a short period," a military official exposed to the intelligence material said.
"After consolidating all Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, based on what we saw in maps and documents and what was actually discovered, it is clear that Gaza was constructed as one large military base, including the use of kindergartens, schools, clinics, hospitals, and mosques," a source who reviewed the Hamas documents explained.
UNRWA corruption
The documents also revealed corruption within Hamas. United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) apartments were found registered in the name of Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif's wife. Apartments of Mohammed Sinwar, brother of Hamas head Yahya Sinwar, were received from UNRWA and then rented to Palestinians, according to rental contracts.
October 7 planning
The report showed that over 150 pickup trucks and more than 350 Chinese motorcycles, smuggled through tunnels under the Philadelphi Route, were used by over 4,000 terrorists from 75 infiltration points to attack Western Negev settlements and military outposts on October 7. There was a map of the Tel Nof Airbase detailing the locations of squadrons, commanders' offices, and dining halls, where the terrorists initially planned to hold the hostages before taking them to Gaza.
On the bodies of terrorists, a "phrasebook" was found that allowed them to communicate in Hebrew with civilians and soldiers during raids. It included phrases like: "Take off your clothes," "Strip," "Take off your pants," "Children here and women there."
LGBTQ+ persecution
The Jerusalem Post reports that the uncovered Hamas documents, described as an organizational "rulebook," reveal a policy of severe persecution against individuals suspected of being part of the LGBTQ+ community. The documents included records of interrogations and witness accounts detailing aggressive questioning sessions that focused exclusively on sexual orientation and preferences. According to the intelligence gathered, these findings suggest that Hamas imposed a grim sentence on those they believed to be LGBTQ+: execution.
Systematic indoctrination
The intelligence cache included disturbing educational materials, with approximately 1,500 antisemitic books found. These books taught children how to murder Jews by running them over or stabbing them, and included titles like "The End of the Jews" by senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar. They also found documentation from Hamas summer camps funded by foreign donations and photos of babies on couches alongside grenades.
The documents highlighted Hamas's systematic integration of religious justification for their brutal acts, using Quranic verses and fatwas. Battalion commanders in the military wing received religious authorization to write fatwas under the title of sheikh to justify their actions against the Israeli population and soldiers, showing the terrorists there was no contradiction between their orders and Islam. This religious framing appears to have been used to rationalize the indiscriminate violence during the October 7 attack, where Hamas terrorists targeted not only Israeli citizens but also Bedouin residents, whom they labeled as "collaborators," and Thai workers, whom they referred to as "infidels."
A handwritten note found on the body of the commander who led the raid on Sderot provided insight into this mindset. The note claimed that, according to their interpretation of the Quran, the terrorists' souls would ascend to heaven, and they would be rewarded with paradise in exchange for their brutal actions against both soldiers and civilians. Some terrorists carried notebooks containing teachings influenced by Abdullah Azzam, one of the founders of Al-Qaeda, who promoted the idea that the act of killing "purifies the soul."
Evidence collection
The analysis of intelligence gathered from both Palestinian and Israeli territories revealed another systematic effort by Hamas: a comprehensive program of combat documentation and evidence collection. This initiative served multiple purposes beyond just gathering military intelligence and ensuring operational precision.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the program was designed to instill terror in the Israeli population, create a lasting psychological impact of fear, erode public confidence in the Israeli military and government institutions, and generate an atmosphere of chaos and insecurity.
The terrorists employed various shocking tactics to achieve these goals. These included using blood-soaked hands to smear walls in the homes of hostages and victims and leaving threatening notes and graffiti with messages such as "We will return next year." This strategy explains why all members of Hamas's elite Nukhba force were equipped with GoPro cameras during the October 7 attack.
