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Tunnel Walls Close In for Hamas as the Psychological War Intensifies
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Anshel Pfeffer - In the 3 1/2 months since the IDF's ground maneuver in Gaza began, IDF Military Intelligence and Israel Security Agency operatives accompanying the forces have retrieved a trove of information: millions of documents, computer hard-drives, CCTV footage, and thousands of hours of interrogations of captured Hamas members. In the case of the two recently freed Israeli hostages, they were located in the Shabura neighborhood of Rafah weeks before the operation. But the presence of guards within the apartment where they were being held made the hostages' extraction extremely dangerous. In the run-up to such an operation, an essential element of intelligence is not just how many guards are with the hostages, but who do they directly answer to. Disrupting their chain-of-command through targeted killings just before the rescue mission is one way of disorienting the guards and increasing the chances of getting the hostages out alive. In this case, it worked. The publication of footage of Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, one of the main masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack, in a tunnel was aimed at Sinwar's image among the population of Gaza. He hasn't been heard or seen since the war began. These are the first pictures of him and in them he is a hunted man, hiding with his family deep underground. This is not the way he would want to appear to the Gazans above ground who are bearing the brunt of bombardments. The image of Sinwar hiding underground was broadcast also to reinforce the impression of Hamas losing control over its own fighters and over Gaza in general. It's why last week Hamas made a big deal out of deploying uniformed police in a few parts of Gaza City the IDF had left, and paid the salaries of a few civil servants. One Israeli intelligence official said Hamas' "fighters have transitioned into 'guerilla mode.' Their military structure of battalions is no longer relevant in most areas and they have to operate deep underground in tiny cells in order to survive. But the longer they stay in 'guerilla mode,' the more it becomes clear that they have lost their biggest asset in the past 16 1/2 years, their ability to govern Gaza. And the more difficult it will be to restore that." Israeli intelligence has been surprised that the senior Hamas leadership, as well as thousands of fighters who are still alive, have lasted so long underground. But Hamas has been surprised as well. They never expected the IDF to penetrate so deeply into Gaza and to remain there for so long.