Hamas' attack on Israel: 'analog' warfare and Iran's political interests

According to experts, the operation avoided Israeli intelligence services by using "analogue tactics" in a time of digital war.

Transcript

00:00 Hamas's latest attack against Israel is one that required exceptional logistics.

00:06 So how did the group bypass Israel's world-renowned intelligence services and who financed the

00:11 operation?

00:12 Joost Hilterman says analog tactics were used in a world where "digital war" has become

00:18 the norm.

00:19 "We have to keep in mind we're talking about a very low level of sophistication when it

00:26 comes to military hardware.

00:30 In the end, what did they use?

00:31 They used some hang gliders, powered hang gliders, well you can get them on the open

00:35 market.

00:36 They used regular rifles and small arms.

00:42 They used motorcycles and pickup trucks.

00:44 They used some drones and explosives.

00:47 And of course they fired rockets, but most of the rockets are not sophisticated."

00:53 Some experts suspect Iran is financing Hamas's attacks due to its political interests.

00:59 But is it possible to verify Tehran's involvement in last Saturday's operation?

01:03 Dr. Sejian Gohold from the London-based Asia Pacific Foundation seems to think so.

01:10 "Along with the sheer ferocity of imagination, the scale of it, preventing any leakage of

01:18 information, so you also have to factor in that Hamas has got a lot of support, tactical,

01:25 strategic, and financial backing from Iran, who have been able to operate in many ways

01:32 in various guises around the world.

01:35 So Hamas may be taking a leaf out of Iran's book."

01:38 "There should be no doubt that one of the motivations behind the Hamas operation was

01:42 to prevent normalization of ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

01:46 Now, the Biden administration appeared to be close to brokering a normalization of ties

01:52 between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which Iran strongly opposed."

01:56 [Whoosh]