One of the greatest successes of the IDF during Operation Guardian of the Walls was the destruction of 'the Metro,' a tunnel system built by the Hamas terrorist organization which included hundreds of miles of underground tunnels.
The destruction of the Metro was the culmination of years of meticulous and extensive intelligence gathering.
When the infrastructure for mapping the Metro was obtained, intelligence personnel focused on creating double "maps" for the Gaza Strip: for above ground and for underground. In Unit 9900, they identified the relevant areas using artificial intelligence technologies - applications that enable visual intelligence analysis through drones, photographs and dedicated sensors. In real time over the years, they monitored the changes on the ground, including any progress in Hamas' tunnel program.
During the operation, this technology was also used to identify terrorist targets such as missile launchers and destroy them in real time. Already in the first days of the fighting, hundreds of such targets were destroyed, half of them due to the use of artificial intelligence to identify them.
"The cracking of the Metro, our ability to map the underground in order to take its central dimension away from the terrorist organization, is a strategic change," says a senior source in the IDF.
"Hamas saw the tunnels as the ultimate means of survival and movement for its operatives," says Major Y., head of the underground section of the research division. "The IDF's attack capabilities are high quality and deep in this arena as well."
"We are coming out of the battle with a weakened and damaged Hamas, it will take them many years to improve the rocket arrays," explains Captain E., the head of target identification in the Research Division. "Among the notable achievements is the elimination of the two senior Hamas engineers. We have damaged their ability to strengthen their capabilities in an extraordinary way."