Perhaps the “error message” lured Hamas into the underground tunnels. Then he attacked Israel.

The Israeli defense is accused of using the media to deceive Hamas into a death trap. – Intelligent and successful manipulation, the commentator believes.

On Thursday evening, the Israeli army issued a statement that set fire to the international media. In one of them, it was said that the Israeli army was attacking the Gaza Strip with air and ground forces Twitter message.

The same statement was sent to journalists. A defense spokesman Directly confirm this For a journalist from the Wall Street Journal.

The international media began reporting that the Israeli ground forces were on their way to Gaza. It would be a violent escalation of an already bloody conflict. Many feared a full-fledged war.

Two hours later, the statement was withdrawn. The new report said that there were no ground forces in Gaza. Instead, ground forces opened fire on Gaza from the Israeli side.

The Israeli defense said the error message was the result of an internal misunderstanding. Many Israeli commentators disagree with the interpretation. They think the first statement wasn’t an accident.

“They didn’t lie,” said Or Heller, a former military correspondent for Israel’s Channel 13 television.

– It was manipulation. He was smart and he was successful, he says.

Hamas death trap

Several prominent Israeli media outlets support Heller’s allegations, he says The New York Times. They claim that the alleged misunderstanding was a trap. The intention is to deceive Hamas into believing the invasion has begun.

Hamas’ response, in turn, will cost the lives of dozens of its soldiers.

Hebrew media alleges that the Israeli defense deceived Hamas soldiers into seeking shelter in a network of tunnels in the Gaza Strip. These are underground tunnels that Hamas has dug under residential areas.

On Friday night, Israel launched air strikes on these tunnels in particular. 160 warplanes bombed the tunnels for more than 40 minutes.

This is how the tunnels turned into death traps for terrorists in Gaza, says a military correspondent for Channel 12 television.

He also claims that spreading misinformation to foreign media was a “planned ploy”.

An Israeli defense spokesman said they were working to find out how many “terrorists” were killed in the attack.

Hamas has yet to comment on the attack. The AP news agency also writes that it is difficult to confirm reports from the IDF.

– Not trying to deceive anyone

Have you used the international media to deceive Hamas into a death trap?

The question was posed to Jonathan Conricus at a press conference on Friday. He is the English spokesman for the Israeli defense.

Conricus says he misunderstood the information “that came from the field”. Without verifying the information, transfer it to the media. He says it was not an attempt to deceive anyone. Nor to get the media to write something wrong.

I understand it might look different, as he says and describes it all as “embarrassed.”

But the spokesman admitted that the defense tried to deceive the Hamas soldiers in Gaza. Not through the media, but by moving tanks and armored vehicles towards the borders. This was intended to give the impression that an invasion was underway. Palestinian soldiers will be forced into tunnels.

Conricus claims the media was not part of the plan.

The target was the hopefully dead terrorists who are now inside the tunnel. The Israeli army wanted to create a situation where they would go down in the tunnels so that we could attack them.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could do the same Friday confirmed.

In recent days, we have attacked underground targets. Hamas thought they could hide there. He said they could not.

Thousands of kilometers of tunnels

The bombing of the tunnels network was one of the largest operations carried out by the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza in several years. The Israeli newspaper writes Haaretz. Several senior Hamas officials are said to have been in the tunnels when the attack took place.

The tunnels, which now extend over several thousand kilometers, have been called “the metro”. It was originally built in response to the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, Scriver Washington Post.

The blockade was imposed after Hamas took control of the area in 2006. Thanks to the tunnels, goods can still be transported to Gaza.

Hamas leaders Confirm the presence of tunnels. They now claim to be used primarily for defense. But many examples indicate otherwise:

• In 2006, Hamas used a tunnel to hold it An Israeli soldier was captured. He was released after only five years.
• During the 2014 war, Hamas released videos of masked and armed soldiers crawling from holes in the ground. Israeli officials said that the forces were attacked by fighters who left the ground.

A major goal

Netanyahu has expressed his fear that the tunnels will be used to kidnap Israeli soldiers and civilians. Experts He suggested the same thing.

The tunnels have become a prime target for the airstrikes that now hit Gaza.

“We are now attacking a network of tunnels that extend under Gaza,” he said. Jonathan Conricus In the Israeli defense on Friday.

It is a network that Hamas members use to move and hide, he said.

A Twitter message from the Israeli Defense Forces shows the entrance to one of the Hamas tunnels. Not far away is an elementary school and a mosque.

The Israeli army is taking all feasible precautions to prevent civilian casualties when we attack, they wrote.