Hamas Came Very Prepared for Towns They Attacked

When Hamas militants breached the border between Gaza and Israel, they knew precisely where they were going and what they would likely encounter. The militants carried detailed maps of the Israeli towns and neighborhoods they raided, reports the Wall Street Journal. Other documents recovered at attack sites make clear the fighters not only set out to hit Israeli military locales but civilian areas where they could take hostages. "They knew exactly what the targets were going to be," Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli military intelligence officer now at Tel Aviv University tells the Journal. "There is nothing close to this level of planning in any steps Hamas had done in the past."

One chilling example is a document detailing the layout of a small community, or kibbutz, called Mefalsim and noting that about 1,000 "civilians" were present. The fighters were instructed that Israeli soldiers could arrive in "3-5 minutes" and that they should act quickly to take hostages. Mefalsim was indeed attacked, though a volunteer force fought back and prevented any deaths, unlike the carnage at other Israeli kibbutzes. Another map found in a slain militant's vest designated "places with crowds, synagogues, and kindergartens" in the town of Ofakim, said resident Almog Cohen, who fought against the militants.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military on Friday continues to prepare for an expected ground invasion into Gaza, per CNN. Residents in northern Gaza were ordered by Israel to evacuate to the south—an exodus of some 1.1 million people—while Hamas told residents to stay put. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Israel on Friday to meet his Israeli counterpart, and he pledged that US military assistance "is already rapidly flowing" into the country, per the New York Times. (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)