Has Hamas combined high-tech and low-tech tactics?

In January the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) uncovered a Hamas operation designed to steal secrets from the Israeli military. In “Operation Hunter’s Network” the IDF with the cooperation of Israeli Security Agency discovered dozens of fake accounts on social media sites like Facebook. These accounts would reach out to Israeli soldiers, sometimes in romantic ways, and ask them to download applications that would infect their computers with a Trojan horse virus.

Once downloaded the virus “would give Hamas operatives access to all photos, the soldier’s location, text messages and contacts.” It would also give them access to a soldier’s camera and microphone, which allowed Hamas to take photos and record conversations without the soldier’s knowledge.

This operation shows that Hamas is moving to incorporate high tech tactics in its fight against Israel.

Part of this expansion also includes the use of drone by Hamas, an issue of increasing concern by the IDF. The IDF first discovered a Hamas drone factory in 2012. Two years later Hamas had progressed to the point where it could began launching drones towards Israel.

Hamas has also shown the ability to fix and reassemble captured Israeli drones. This means that Israel faces the danger of having its own weapons used against it.

Hamas’ use of drones mirrors that of other Islamic terrorist organizations including Hezbollah. Both Hamas and Hezbollah received drone technology from Iran. Hezbollah is the bigger player in the terrorist use of drone with a fleet of 200 UAVs, which it mainly uses for surveillance. However, both Hamas and Hezbollah want to use their drones to be capable for use in terrorist attacks, possibly by crashing them into Israeli neighborhoods.

Last year Hamas’ drone program suffered a setback when one of its drone experts, Mohamed Zaouari, was killed. Hamas blames the death on Israel and has vowed retaliation.

Since Zaouari’s death Hamas has not launched any new drones, which could mean that the loss of Zaouari has grounded the program. This would not be the first time Israel claimed to have destroyed Hamas drone program only to have the Islamist terror group renew drone operations however.

Even if Zaouari can be replaced with comparable talent it would still take a longtime before Hamas’ drone program could be used to effectively conduct a terrorist attack. The drones Hamas launched have either been shot down by the IDF while still in Gaza or, if it succeeded in crossing the border, crashed harmlessly. Israel border security has also successfully intercepted disassembled drones Hamas tried to smuggle into Gaza.

Despite Hamas’ continued interest in high-tech terrorism, it’s the low-tech tactics which have proven more successful. Last year’s shootings and knife attacks perpetrated by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists have killed 16 Israelis. Just this month a Palestinian drove his truck into a crowd killing 4 IDF soldiers.

Knives and trucks have also proven to be more successful than rockets, thanks to Israel missile defense improvements. Rocket attacks in 2016 did not result in any fatalities although Israelis were wounded.

Although high-tech tactics have proven unsuccessful in attaining fatalities, Hamas could use its drones and rocket to increase the lethality of its low-tech attacks.

Instead of trying to send their drones over the border to attack Israeli settlements Hamas could keep them in Gaza to monitor the Israeli/Gaza border. Hamas has already developed a drone with reconnaissance capabilities called A1A.

Hamas could keep those drones in Gaza and use them to run reconnaissance missions near the Israeli border. The drones could search for breaches or lightly guarded areas. Hamas could send more fighters through these weak spots into Israel. With more Hamas fighters infiltrating the Israeli side of the border, the potential for lethal terrorist attack increases.

Hamas might also use rockets to distract the Israeli military while they rebuild the tunnels that were destroyed in “Operation Protective Edge.” During the operation in 2014 the IDF destroyed 32 tunnels, 14 of which crossed into Israel in order to conduct terror attacks.

Since then Hamas has resurrected its tunnel program. To protect tunnel construction Hamas might be use its rocket launches as a cover. The rockets keep the IDF concentrated on monitoring the skies and shooting down any potential threats while the more lethal threat may be below ground. While the Israelis are aggressively pursuing countermeasures, successful tunnel detection technology is still a long way off.

Hamas can be expected to continue to innovate both high and low-tech means of continuing its terrorist conflict against Israel. Hamas’ most dangerous course of action however is likely to be utilizing high-tech means primarily for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance purposes while continuing to reply on relatively low-tech, but time-tested attack methods.