The theft of engineering equipment on monday by Hamas terrorists who infiltrated Israeli-controlled territory was not reported in real time to political leadership. The Prime Minister’s and Defense Minister’s offices only learned of the incident from our report on Channel 14.
1+A senior political source described the scale of the failure to C14: “The refusal to grant authorization contradicts explicit instructions from the political leadership to open fire at anyone crossing the Yellow Line and threatening our forces.” As we first revealed, several Hamas terrorists crossed into the Yellow Zone after being spotted by IDF observation posts, stole engineering equipment, and returned to the Red Zone without any fire being opened at them.
1+Moreover, soldiers testify that they identified the terrorists in real time during the act and requested authorization to eliminate them but were denied by senior command. This serious incident reflects the scale of the failure over the past two weeks, since the political leadership’s explicit order to halt fire operations in the Strip except in cases of clear and immediate danger to life.