The Hamas terrorist organization used a sequence of emojis as a code name for launching the Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border massacre, the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Censor allowed for publication on Monday.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 broadcaster, the emoticons were found on phones belonging to operatives of Hamas’ elite Nukhba Force that spearheaded the deadliest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.
The IDF concluded that the same sequence of emojis had been used ahead of two failed large-scale attacks by the Islamist terrorist group in September 2022 and April 2023, Channel 12 reported.
The emojis signaled to the Nukhba terrorists to switch to Israeli SIM cards ahead of the invasion, according to the Ynet site.
At 2:45 a.m. Oct. 7, Israeli intelligence noticed that dozens of Israeli SIM cards were activated in Gaza, but the activity was disregarded by the Israel security agency Shin Bet, local media reported last year.
It was not the first such activation. One took place the previous night, around 9 p.m. Friday. (By Wednesday, Oct. 5, some 45 communication devices of Gaza terrorists had also been activated.)
An intelligence summary by the Shin Bet southern region sent to a group of intelligence and political officials dismissed the activity.
“Today and yesterday, there were SIMs in certain areas of Gaza.
“This is not unusual, since similar tests were carried out by Hamas last year as well,” the summary reportedly stated.
“According to the division and the command [leadership], Hamas has not changed its routine. The information is preliminary and there are routine activities in Hamas. A discussion on the matter will be held by the [IDF] Southern Command Intelligence Officer at 08:30 and by the Southern Command heads at 10:00,” the Shin Bet added.
The anomaly was detected some three hours and 45 minutes before thousands of Gaza terrorists stormed the security fence and murdered around 1,200 people, wounded thousands of others, and took 251 hostages.
