Isrealis find Hamas plan of battle in Gaza

Ynet:

A map depicting Hamas' best-laid plans on how to hurt IDF soldiers in Gaza was discovered by paratroopers in al-Atatra neighborhood Thursday. The map was translated on the scene and helped the troops in subsequent operations.

Chief IDF Intelligence Officer Brigadier-General Yuval Halamish explained that Hamas had divided the neighborhood into a number of areas distinguished by landmarks such as mosques, gas stations, and fuel depots.

"You can see that the neighborhood was divided into three areas of fighting, according to color, and inside the terrorists spread out a number of posts, planted explosive devices, and posted sharpshooters," he said.

"Hamas makes cynical use of civilian homes, the entrances of which were booby-trapped in order to hurt IDF soldiers." Explosive devices were also planted near gas stations despite the immediate danger to civilians, Halamish added. He said the layout had been thoroughly planned in preparation for a ground operation.

The map consists of precise drawings of all homes in the neighborhood as well as a color-coded key drawn in the top left-hand corner, which describes the type of explosive device planted at each site. Sharpshooters' stations were also marked.

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The story also discusses Hamas's use of dolls to attract or distract the soldiers. It is not clear to me why Israeli soldiers would be attracted to dolls on the battlefield, but perhaps they are something different from what I would expect. There is a copy of the map discovered at the link above. This reminds me of a similar discovery of a map of the Baghdad "rings" that the US found before the surge which guided them in destroying al Qaeda operations.

This map is a very valuable find for the IDF, and I am surprised they publicized it before fully exploiting its contents. Hamas will now probably change their plan.

Strategy Page discusses the much more sophisticated Israeli digital mapping system for Gaza that also helps it call homes that are targeted.