The ISA (Shabak) has published a recording of a conversation between an ISA coordinator and a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, which took place after the Palestinian accidentally strayed into a restricted area on the border during the Guardian of the Walls conflict.
During the course of their conversation, it became apparent that the Palestinian was a farmer who had arrived in the area in order to cultivate his land. The coordinator convinced him that he should leave the area, in case he was mistaken for a terrorist and targeted by IDF forces.
During the course of the conflict, the IDF was constantly monitoring the border area, partially due to the fear that Hamas terrorists would emerge from underground tunnels and attempt to mount a cross-border attack. Ultimately, the IDF carried out a large number of bombing missions specifically against Hamas’ “Metro” – its underground tunnel network – turning the work of years into rubble and also killing scores of terrorists who were in the tunnels at the time of the attacks.
Although Hamas has continually attempted to deny that a significant number of its fighters were liquidated during the fighting, footage has emerged showing the terrorist organization removing large numbers of corpses from the devastated tunnels. The IDF estimates that dozens of fighters from Hamas’ ‘Nukhba” tunnel brigade were buried when the tunnels were bombed. Hamas was forced to bring in special earth-moving equipment in order to extract the bodies, and went to great lengths to seal off the area before doing so, in an effort to keep its activities secret.