Reports: Israel Lured Hamas Fighters Into Tunnels With Rumor Of Ground Invasion, Then Bombed Tunnels In Massive Airstrike
“160 aircraft flying simultaneously conducted a massive attack on a network of tunnels dug by the Hamas terror group after ambiguous IDF statement caused media frenzy that Israel has launched ground invastion.”
The Israeli military apparently used a brilliant deceptive maneuver to take out Hamas’s terrorist fighting force and underground tunnels — in a single blow.
In what could only be described as killing two birds with one stone, the Israel Defense Forces on Thursday night told news reporters that the Israeli ground forces were on their way to Hamas-held Gaza.
The news spread quickly through the mainstream media and affiliated social media accounts. Believing an Israeli ground invasion to be imminent, Hamas ordered its terrorist fighters to seek shelter in the tunnel network dug up under the Gaza city.
What followed the Hamas mobilization was a massive wave of Israeli airstrikes — comprising of 160 aircraft — on the Gaza tunnel network with the jihadi group’s top terror brass sitting underground, right where the IDF wanted them.
Save this tweet: No Israeli ground forces were sent into Gaza. But the @IDFSpokesperson statement echoed by the media triggered Hamas to move its forces into the main reinforced tunnels away from the border. The IDF then hit the tunnels. Classic military deception tactics. https://t.co/HFFLegTuVX
— Prof Gerald M Steinberg (@GeraldNGOM) May 14, 2021
The Times of Israel reported the devastating blow to the Hamas terror tunnels:
Some 160 aircraft flying simultaneously conducted a massive attack on a network of tunnels dug by the Hamas terror group under the northern Gaza Strip around midnight Thursday in the largest Israeli strike since the outbreak of fighting earlier this week, the military said Friday.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, in this air campaign, which lasted nearly 40 minutes, some 450 missiles were dropped on 150 targets in northern Gaza, particularly around the city of Beit Lahiya. The military said it was still working to determine the extent of the damage caused to the underground infrastructure, which IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman told reporters was a “strategic asset” to Hamas, and the number of terrorist operatives killed in the strikes.
Genius ruse by IDF: put out a vaguely worded tweet hinting a ground invasion had begun, which made Hamas fighters scramble to their tunnels, then it blew the tunnels to smithereens. https://t.co/ldyK93arNp
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) May 14, 2021
The Jerusalem Post reported the brilliant Israeli ruse that will live in the annals of military and counter-terrorism history:
At about 9 pm on Thursday night, the IDF began assembling ground forces along the border with the Gaza Strip. Some armored and infantry battalions joined the artillery batteries that had been deployed days earlier to pound Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets.
Earlier in the day, the IDF said that a ground offensive was on the table as a viable option for the continuation of Operation Guardians of the Wall. The IDF was hitting hard at Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets from the air but on the ground they would be expected to cause even more damage albeit with greater risk to the Israeli forces.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his contribution, saying Thursday that the campaign against Hamas was far from over and that more Israeli action was coming.
At midnight, the IDF Spokesperson’s English department tweeted that “IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.” The foreign media jumped at the tweet, interpreting it to mean that Israel was sending ground forces into Gaza, a major escalation in the current operation and a sign that it was far from over.
Websites of media outlets around the world, including the Washington Post and ABC, reported the incursion. “Israeli troops have entered the Gaza Strip as conflict with Palestinians escalates, Israeli military says,” was the tweet put out by the Washington Post.
The problem was that there was no ground invasion. Yes, the IDF had deployed troops along the border but they did not cross into Gaza. What did happen was in the air where 160 aircraft had assembled for a massive bombing run over the Gaza Strip. Their target was what the IDF called Hamas’s “Metro”, an underground network of tunnels where Hamas stored its weapons and used to move throughout Gaza hidden from Israeli aircraft.
The “Metro” had been built in the years after the 2014 war in the Gaza Strip, also known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge. It was a network of dozens of kilometers of tunnels that crisscrossed Gaza and provided safety from Israeli aerial incursions.
According to reports, due to the deployment along the border and the news coming out in the foreign media of a ground incursion, Hamas and Islamic Jihad sent their first-line of defense into the tunnels to start taking up positions. These were the anti-tank missile teams and mortar squads meant to strike at incoming Israeli ground forces.
What they did not know was that there was no ground offensive. Instead, once they were out of the tunnels, they were exposed to Israeli aircraft. Within minutes, the “Metro” attack went ahead.
How many Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were killed in the operation? That remains to be seen. IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman said on Friday morning that the military was still evaluating the consequences of the operation.
.@IDFSpokesperson deception led Hamas to enter its underground tunnel network known as the 'Metro' with 160 Israeli aircraft waiting in the skies above to strike in one of the most aggressive aerial assaults Gaza has known.https://t.co/vo1d3Lxums
— Yaakov Katz (@yaakovkatz) May 14, 2021
While the IDF evaluates the success of the overnight counterstrike, the irony of this brilliant Israeli maneuver could not be more clear. Since the resumption of Palestinian hostilities this week, the mainstream media has been a willing accomplice in Hamas’s terror game: disseminating Islamist group’s propaganda, sympathizing with it and painting Israel as the aggressor.
The operation also shows the Israeli government’s resolve to destroy Gaza’s terrorist infrastructure. “[W]hatever we don’t do now, we will have to do in six months or a year,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet colleagues on Thursday.
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Damn – the IDF lied – I hate when that happens,
Signed George patton and 3rd army massing for the beach landing at calias scheduled for Jun 30, 1944
“War is deceit.”-Muhammad, Bukhari 52:269
Hey, if their Big Mo said it, it must be true.
https://medium.com/@Penseur/war-is-deceit-muhammad-949ab473586c
War is war. – William Sherman to Halleck 1864.
All warfare is based on deception. — Sun Tzu
Eat it, terrorist scum! -me
“Roaches check in, but they don’t check out”
– Black Flag Roach Motel
So they all show up, dressed to kill and then they get lunched with all their equipment and gear buried and or blown up in about one hour.
Somewhere, “Stormin’ Norman” is smiling.
Well done, IDF! The psychological effects of this attack will last a long time. Every time “Palestinian” terrorists go into a tunnel, a thought will be in their minds that maybe the IDF wants them there.
Yes! Israel will prevail because she has Bibi, the IDF, and the spirit and willingness to fight.
And thank you, Ted Cruz, for your unwavering support of Israel. Wipe the floor with Ilhan Omar.
As far as I can tell Omar isn’t good for anything else, she is dumb, she carries dumb genes, I cannot see anything redeaming.
Awesome! That ought to have dealt a crippling blow to hamas! At the rate they are going Israel should have this wrapped up pretty quick!
That’s how I would do it. Well done.
Fake news media kills peace loving Palestinian defense workers. News at 11:00 . . . . .
Man if only I could thumbs up this 1000 times more! Nice one!
That was nasty.
I like it.
I have been listening to the Alexander Scourby reading of the Old Testament recently. When the Israelites were commanded to kill every last living human creature in the cities of the wicked and idolatrous people of the land, they did not. They had compassion, they made deals, they subjugated them for tribute, they intermarried.
““[W]hatever we don’t do now, we will have to do in six months or a year,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
that could well have been said by Joshua 3000 years ago.
I am not saying the Palestinians should all be killed, “genocided”, but I wonder at the VERY LONG term consequences of ignoring the word of the Lord, and thinking we know better.
I was wondering last night why there weren’t at least some preliminary reports on the opening of the ground invasion…
Ha! Such a ruthless and deceptive tactic on the part of the IDF.
I love it.
How shocking! After launching thousands of missles at Israel, they thought Israel would respond by showering them with rose petals.
Hmmm, So Joe Biden said Israel has a right to defend themselves. Interesting how things were quite when Trump was in office. Is Biden starting a new war? Isn’t Trump like the only President since Ford not to start a war in office? Funny how the talking point were that Trump was going to start a war.
And who could forget the breathless media reports of Trump “starting a war with Iran” after “recklessly” incinerating Soleilmani? It seems like that worked out pretty well.
Acid test: If it makes the left and their media parrots big mad then it was probably a very good move.
I am still confused by the reporting. Did the Israelis hit the teams as they came out of the tunnels? Or, did they bomb the entrances and close them inside?
What I’ve read and heard from a couple of sources, is that Hamas was staging RPG and Mortar teams in the tunnels waiting for the Israeli tanks to roll, and during a feint by IDF armor, the Hamas teams began to deploy from pre-targeted tunnel exits.
A group of 160 some aircraft already in the air then opened up on them both killing terrorists as they emerged from tunnels while also sealing and collapsing the tunnels presumably killing anyone still inside.
The best of both worlds.
If the blast did not kill you rushing through the tunnels, the lack of air as the entrances are all closed off will.
The amount of gear lost most be immense, also many trained men were killed in this operation.
Well done for Israel. But now they’ve got to press their advantage and clean out the region of the Hamas arab terrorists or they will have to do this again in six months or a year as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said. They cannot wait for Iran to re-arm Hamas. They must be dealt with now. No delays. And to hell with what the “international community” says. They aren’t the ones being indiscriminately bombed by hostile forces.
They “lured” them into tunnels. What did they use, cheese?
untreated lumber
yikes termites!!!
Ewes
Ewww!
The bait was the story, of being able to murder Jews.
So they all, of course showed up hoping to get their hands on a Zionist.
I was hoping for a campaign of flooding the tunnels with a slurry of seawater and sand. Drown the rats where they crouch, crying for their mommies.
And if they try to get up, hit ’em with a broom handle!
We are truly getting our money’s worth paid back with dead terrorists. We should reward Israel with increased aid.
Better yet to announce that aid is being taken from UN and given to Israel, pour salt in their wounds.
Maybe under a Trump administration. No chance of that now.
I am looking forward to rectifying that in upcoming elections.
lex talionis
Remember who gave the terrorists pallets of cadh (via Iran) with an addition 221 million dollars on his way out the door: obama.
Obama deserves the same treatment Hamas is getting,
Blew up the tunnels, killed the terrorists AND buried them, all at the same time.
Saving money and getting the job done double quick.
Start up Nation ?
🇮🇱
Well we tried to warn them about an untruthful press.
Inflamed by the radical left world wide, including members of our own congress. Set up by the fake news, too lazy to actually verify an invasion. Killed by the planes and missiles sold to them by the Trump administration. Spicy Friday indeed.
Military strategy be hard!
Bomb making is easier. I like it when the instructor goes, “Oopsie!”
They need a tip and making really good, large pipe bombs. The secret for getting the biggest bang is to coat the threads with black powder.
“Those Jews. So clever. We need to do something about that.” LOL
I have long suspected that much Jew hate is driven by inferiority, people who know that they do not measure up. It is not just raw intelligence, jews have an exceptional culture.
Omfg – this made my day. College football trick play :slow clap:
This was an amazing deception on the part of the IDF. It can only work once. You can bet the Mossad had informants that mapped out the entrances and exits, as well as the maps of the tunnel runs. GPS coordinates and then targets of opportunity. Well done, well done!!
Maybe, but maybe not. The next time they may not run to the bomb shelters and then you actually do attack.
Sounds to me like CNN killed these poor religious penitents.
play silly games, win silly prizes.
🇮🇱 🌞
It is a shame that there were no embedded “journalists” in those tunnels.
The beauty of this operation is the fact that the anti I sural hating MSM helped to kill and destroy their beloved terrorists.