The Shin Bet and IDF constantly update information about the October 7 invasion, as well as a new physical apparatus in the South to assist with ongoing targeting and IDF counter-invasion maneuvering operations. This information regularly helps with deciding whether to attack specific targets and when to attack those targets, sometimes enabling IDF forces on the front to attack a target within an hour.
There is also electronic intelligence the IDF collects, often from aerial surveillance and other sensors, which enables the IDF to attack especially block-to-block targets even faster – sometimes within minutes.
In contrast, the Shin Bet information, while also sometimes used at a smaller tactical level, often involves higher-value targets, such as top Hamas commanders or critical Hamas terror infrastructure.
One of the targeted killings the Shin Bet facilitated is the assassination on November 11 of Ahmed Siam, a Hamas Naser Radwan company commander who had held about 1,000 Gazan civilians hostage in Gaza’s Rantisi Hospital to use them as human shields. This had a dramatic impact on the broader situation in the field, such as facilitating large numbers of Palestinian civilians escaping from being essentially held hostage by Siam.
Additionally, the Post has learned that some Shin Bet interrogations have led to more fundamental changes in IDF attack plans, sometimes in real-time, after a deeper understanding of Hamas’s defense plans.
Other strategic impacts from Shin Bet interrogations include unmasking Hamas’s systematic use of hospitals, ambulances, mosques, and other sensitive civilian locations for their terror operations.
On November 8, the Shin Bet specifically used interrogations to publicly disclose the full extent of Hamas’s use of the above categories of locations, as well as health clinics and schools, for terror purposes.
A terrorist interrogated by the Shin Bet admitted that Hamas uses ambulances to transport weapons and terrorists throughout the Gaza Strip. He also revealed that Hamas’s senior political and military figures are hiding in hospitals, especially Shifa Hospital, to avoid being bombed. The Shin Bet also released videos of Hamas terrorists captured on October 7, with common themes of explicit instructions to kill and kidnap civilians.
The Shin Bet and IDF have been working tirelessly to gather intelligence and target high-value Hamas leaders and infrastructure. The information obtained from interrogations and electronic intelligence has significantly impacted operations and revealed the extent of Hamas’s use of civilian locations for terrorist activities.
