IDF Reveals Hamas Plan to Mine Gaza Refugee Camps

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday revealed a Hamas internal document from April 2024, outlining plans to plant explosives near shelters and refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. The document, discovered about six months into the war, aimed to impede IDF forces, disrupt their operations, and allow Hamas operatives to escape. According to the IDF, the plan was developed by Hamas's engineering department and involved using explosives in areas surrounding displaced persons camps, as well as along routes where IDF forces might advance.

The directive specified detonating explosives when forces approached shelters to distract them, create confusion, and generate smoke screens for escape. The document stated, "Placing side explosives around shelters and detonating them directly at enemy vehicles to disrupt the enemy's attack plan." Further instructions detailed preparing explosives around shelters and detonating them upon the forces' approach to "distract the enemy and confuse their efforts and focus from the main objective and create smoke screens."

The plan also proposed planting explosives along routes where forces might advance rapidly, including near shelter centers. The objective was to alert Hamas operatives to advancing forces, delay them, and disrupt their plans early in an operation. Additionally, the proposal included disabling or neutralizing houses expected to be used by forces, particularly those overlooking entrances and exits to displaced persons camps.

The IDF claims the plan was also intended to generate panic and chaos among the civilian population, partly through the use of sound bombs in the camps, to facilitate the escape of Hamas operatives hiding in the area. The military stated, "This is further evidence that the terrorist organization Hamas is willing to endanger the lives of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip to advance its terrorist activities."