IDF: 65 million digital files, 500,000 physical documents found in Gaza have helped troops locate Hamas infrastructure
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The IDF says it has recovered more than 65 million digital files and half a million physical documents from the Gaza Strip, which have aided ground forces in battling Hamas and locating the terror group’s infrastructure.
The IDF Military Intelligence Directorate’s so-called intelligence collection and technical spoils unit — known by its Hebrew acronym Amshat — has been investigating the findings brought back to Israel amid the ground offensive, and extracting intelligence.
“The unit analyzes and concludes operational meanings, which improves the activity of the forces fighting in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF says.
Among the documents analyzed by the unit was a map, located by the 252nd Division in the home of a Hamas commander in Beit Hanoun, showing the locations of tunnels. The map’s legend was found in the home of a separate Hamas operative.
The IDF says the two documents were brought to the unit, which analyzed them and made a connection. Many of the tunnel shafts were then located and destroyed by troops on the ground.
Another map with the location of a tunnel, found by troops of the 36th Division in the home of an aide to the commander of Hamas’s Shejaiya battalion Wissam Farhat, was also brought to the unit.
The location was mapped out by the Intelligence Directorate’s unit 9900, and soldiers quickly went there to destroy the shaft, the IDF says.
Another document brought to the unit detailed the location of a cache of explosives in the Beit Hanoun area. The IDF says after the document was analyzed, soldiers on the ground went and destroyed it.
