‘Back to the Stone Age’: How Hamas fooled the world’s top intel agencies

The “year-long” plan to attack Israel went undetected after Hamas ditched phones, computers, and used ancient tactics to avoid surveillance and lull Israel into complacency. Here’s how.

Hamas pulled off one of the biggest routs of the world’s top intelligence agencies by “going back to the stone age” to avoid surveillance and lull Israel into a false sense of security.

As the war rages on and the death and destruction continue to escalate, the full extent of the embarrassing intelligence failure by Israel and its ally the United States is coming into view.

Despite apparent warnings and Hamas carrying out training exercises on a mock Israeli settlement, terrorists stormed over Israeli defences for the first time since the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago.

Palestinians take selfies after taking control of an Israeli tank at the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis. Picture: AFP

The year-long plan avoided detection after Hamas ditched phones and computers to go “back to the Stone Age”. Picture: AFP

Amir Avivi, a retired Israeli general, said that after Israel’s security services pulled out of Gaza and reduced its ability to gather human intelligence, Hamas found a way to evade the hi-tech spy surveillance that had become the main means of intel gathering.

“They’ve gone back to the Stone Age,” Avivi said in an interview with AP, adding they avoided phones and computers and went underground in the rabbit warren of tunnels beneath the Palestinian enclave.

“The other side learned to deal with our technological dominance and they stopped using technology that could expose it.”

Hamas officials boasted about the successful operation, saying only a small number of top commanders inside Gaza knew about the incursion, with allies like Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah only informed before the “zero hour”.

Iran’s top authority Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that Tehran was not involved in the attack, which he hailed as an “irreparable” defeat of Israel’s military and intelligence.

“We kiss the hands of those who planned the attack on the Zionist regime,” Khamenei. said.

“This destructive earthquake (Hamas’ attack) has destroyed some critical structures (in Israel) which will not be repaired easily … The Zionist regime’s own actions are to blame for this disaster.”

The US said Iran was complicit in the attack, which Hamas sources in Lebanon told Sky News they planned for more than a year to launch on Shabbat, a Jewish holiday, half a century after the Yom Kippur War.

The terror group Hamas stormed across Israel in an embarrassing intelligence failure for the world’s top spy agencies. Picture: AFP

A source close to Hamas described their plans to give Israel “the impression that it was not ready for a fight”.

“Hamas used an unprecedented intelligence tactic to mislead Israel over the last months, by giving a public impression that it was not willing to go into a fight or confrontation with Israel while preparing for this massive operation,” the source told Reuters.

In preparation for the attack, Hamas built a mock settlement in Gaza where they practised destroying barriers and building ramps for attackers to roll over the border. They released videos of the manoeuvres after the successful assault.

Hamas kidnapped hostages to be used as human shields for the expected retaliation from Israel. Picture: Supplied

“Israel surely saw them but they were convinced that Hamas wasn’t keen on getting into a confrontation,” the source said.

“Hamas was able to build a whole image that it was not ready for a military adventure against Israel.”

An Israeli security source told Reuters they were convinced the terrorist group’s military might had been spent and that they were more focused on receiving economic incentives for Gaza workers, despite training in plain sight.

“They got us. They surprised us and they came fast from many spots — both from the air and the ground and the sea,” Israeli Defence Forces spokesman Major Nir Dinar said.

An Egyptian intelligence official said they repeatedly warned the Israelis about “something big” but were ignored.

“We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” the Egyptian official told the AP.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “false”, adding in a Tweet “no message in advance arrived from Egypt.

“The Prime Minister has neither spoken, nor met, with the head of Egyptian intelligence since the formation of the government, neither directly nor indirectly. This is totally fake news.”