Leading up to the attack, Hamas fighters were being trained and drilled — often in plain sight, Reuters reported.

  • Hamas duped Israel into thinking it cared more about economic stability than a war, Reuters said.

  • Meanwhile, it was practicing for an attack in plain sight, the report said.

  • Hamas trained its fighters on a mock Israeli settlement, learning how to storm it, Reuters added.

———

The Palestinian militant group Hamas built a mock Israeli town in Gaza and practiced attacking in plain sight — but Israel didn’t react, Reuters reported on Sunday.

Hamas militants launched a surprise offensive on Israel on Saturday, in what has been described as the worst breach in Israel’s defenses in decades.

The attack followed a careful campaign of deception by Hamas that ensured Israel was caught off guard over the weekend, an unnamed source, with connections to the group, told Reuters.

Despite convincing Israel that they had no interest in war, Hamas militants were practicing for the offensive in plain sight by setting up a mock Israeli settlement in Gaza to train its fighters.

  • Hegar
    11•1 year ago

    There will be conspiracy theories whether there is anything to base them on or not.

    It’s definitely reasonable to discuss whether Netanyahu was involved in something that benefits him and he is known for. As I said, at the moment it looks unlikely to me that he was. But come on! He has motive, means, priors and it’s great timing for him personally. Acknowledging that all that is true doesn’t mean agreeing to a vast web of conspiracy. All that is true but it it can still be a legit intelligence failure.

      • @RiccosuaveEnglish
        14•1 year ago

        No, it is not “totally reasonable to discuss the question”. That is the basis for conspiracy theories and is why the world is so massively full of FUD and misinformation.

        I would not at all be surprised if the israeli government allowed this to happen.

        Uhhh, okay well which is it then? One second you say it is totally unreasonable to question, and the next you are actively agreeing that you would not be surprised if the government had allowed this to happen. I’m sure even you can see the hypocrisy in that.

        But there is no evidence beyond “they did not act on questionable intel”.

        I don’t recall ever suggesting that there was, nor did the OP of this chain.

        The sooner we enter full conspiracy theory mode, the less credence there is TO (more) nefarious actions coming to light later.

        I’m willing to give you a pass on this point because I think this is probably true. However, let’s not also act like the government doesn’t intentionally muddy the waters and paint anything that is counter to their chosen narrative as conspiracy theories anyway…

        And all we do by entertaining conspiracy theories is erode the concept of truth.

        That is entirely the point isn’t it? The government & intelligence community are fully aware of this phenomenon, and use it to their advantage as one of their main tactics to either squash or foment dissent depending on their objectives.

        The truth has already been eroded to such a degree that whoever controls the largest & fastest means of information dissemination is able to control the narrative. It takes people who are willing to entertain other perspectives to weed through the bullshit in order to eventually land at something that more closely APPROXIMATES the truth.

        The question is not “so was this a false flag action and all the festival goers were crisis actors?”. It is “why did israel not act on this intelligence. What made them think it was not valid”

        Wow, this is such a laughable conflation that I don’t even know what to say about it really. Yes, there are morons who think that way, but I don’t think anybody in this discussion is one of them as far as I can’t tell. So, let’s stick to higher level discourse that can be potentially productive.

      • Hegar
        11•1 year ago

        No, it is not “totally reasonable to discuss the question”

        I would not at all be surprised if the israeli government allowed this to happen.

        Are you familiar with the old robot saying, “does not compute”?

          • Hegar
            11•1 year ago

            Ah, interesting! I personally have no moral qualms with discussing possibilities.

              • Hegar
                11•1 year ago

                But it’s baseful speculation, based on Netanayahu’s past actions.

                He intentionally dialed up tensions as recently as the first round of protests against eliminating judicial independence.

                A more apt anology would be if I was convicted sex offender and suddenly there were hundreds and hundreds of molested children, and people started “just asking questions” about whether I was involved. It’s unlikely that I would have done something on that scale - I’m not a priest. But it’s not a bad faith argument to discuss whether I could be involved.

                I think you’re mistaking some noncommittal discussion of the reality of politics in that region with a known bad faith argument.