Hamas militants received the order to launch the unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023, via emoji messages on their mobile phones, according to a finding by the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF).
Researchers came to this conclusion after finding messages with the same icons on the cell phones of Hamas militants on the day of the massacre in southern Israel, Israeli media reported.
During the attack launched by Palestinian militants, 1,218 people were killed and 251 others were kidnapped. The war in the Gaza Strip followed, which claimed the lives of more than 72,000 people, according to an estimate by the Palestinian enclave's health authorities.
The Jerusalem Post newspaper reports that Hamas fighters, after receiving the emoji messages, began to gather en masse in predetermined locations and arm themselves.
According to a report on the Ynet website, the fighters who participated in the raid had obtained Israeli SIM cards for their cell phones.
The Shin Bet – Israel’s Internal Security (counterintelligence) service – was reportedly informed of the activation of several dozen Israeli SIM cards in the Gaza Strip. However, Israeli authorities did not assess this fact as a potential threat.
The report by the N12 television network says that messages with specific emojis were sent to the mobile phones of Hamas fighters in at least two failed attack attempts. /Panorama
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