IDF intelligence noted the night before Hamas’s October 7 invasion that hundreds of Hamas members were switching on Israeli SIM cards, the censor finally cleared for publication on Monday, more than four months later.
The fact that so many Hamas members were switching to Israeli SIM cards could have been strong evidence of a potential invasion.
Despite this evidence, the overall view at the time of IDF intelligence and other IDF officials was that Hamas would not dare to try such an invasion.
How could the use of Israeli SIM cards be a warning?
This was both because Israel’s technology would give prior warning and any invaders would be killed by overwhelming Israeli air power and reinforcement forces which would arrive in time to stop an invasion and because the IDF counterattack after such even an attempted invasion would be devastating.
Initially on Monday, the IDF would not give a substantive response other than to say that the issue is being reviewed along with many other matters.
An interim report on IDF tactical failures is due in May-June.
But later Monday afternoon, the IDF and the Shin Bet responded, “The publication that 1,000 Israeli SIM cards were activated at the same time is false and far from what really happened. In actuality, signs were received which suggested, among other things, that dozens of SIM cards were activated, which had been activated during previous incidents.”
“Based on this, the defense apparatus got ready and undertook intelligence and operational actions in the field,” the statement continued.
Further, they said, “as has been previously published, on the eve before October 7, signs were received, which led to a situation assessment meeting, after which decisions were made. The signs were based on a diversity of tools and capabilities, including technological tools whose operations cannot be published.”
The IDF and the Shin Bet also requested that publication of the intelligence methods used by Israel not be revealed in a way which harms Israeli forces’ continued use of those capabilities, including during the ongoing war.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not aware that Hamas terrorists switched to Israeli sims until the story was made public Sunday night, according to Israeli media.
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