Hamas airs more footage it says it stole from IDF computers

Days after a secret internal IDF video was uploaded to a Palestinian website, Hamas posted Saturday evening footage from another attack in Israeli territory during the summer’s fighting in Gaza.

Hamas claimed the images were obtained by hacking into IDF computers, Channel 2 reported.

Hamas’s television station broadcast the clip, which the terror group said showed a lethal July 19 infiltration near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha. The footage showed the attackers heading back to Gaza from Israel, carrying two IDF rifles with them.

Two IDF soldiers were killed in the attack: Amotz Greenberg, 45, a major in the reserves from Hod Hasharon, and Sgt. Adar Barsano, 20, from Nahariya.

Hamas gunmen infiltrated Israeli territory via a tunnel under the border fence from the central Gaza Strip and opened fire on a military vehicle that was patrolling on the Israeli side of the border.

The two were the first soldiers killed by Hamas since Operation Protective Edge began on July 8.

“It is unclear if there is any connection between this and the earlier video,” a military source told Channel 2.

On Friday, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz ordered an investigation into the leak of an internal IDF video detailing an unsuccessful Hamas attack on military targets at Kibbutz Zikim, to Palestinian media websites.

IDF spokesperson Brigadier-General Moti Almoz released a statement on Friday detailing a plan of action after internal IDF footage reviewing the infiltration during Operation Protective Edge was leaked and posted on a Palestinian website and on YouTube Wednesday.

The footage revealed IDF code words for military positions, roads and forces.

“We treat the information leaked with the utmost seriousness,” Almoz said on his Facebook page, an official account of the IDF’s Spokesperson Unit. “The chief of staff has given instructions to set up an investigation team led by the Information Security Department in cooperation with the Shin Bet and the military prosecutor’s office.”

The attacks from the sea occurred on July 8, a kilometer north of the Gaza-Israel border. Four Hamas divers were ultimately killed in the aborted infiltration attempt that happened during the bloody 50-day conflict between Israel and terror groups in Gaza.

The leaked video revealed that one of the Hamas commandos managed to attach an explosive belt to a tank, which detonated without causing damage. Although IDF videos and press releases of the incident given to the public contained no mention of the explosive belt, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz appeared to refer to the incident in a speech several months after the war.

​”In certain instances they took very brave actions, and that needs to be said candidly,” he said of Hamas in October. “They wanted to win, as in their actions via the sea… To run and put a mine on a tank, someone who is not brave does not do that. But we need to ensure that we beat them and that’s what we did the last time.”​

Justin Jalil and Mitch Ginsburg contributed to this report.