Palestinians take control of an Israeli tank after crossing the border fence from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 7, 2023. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
Emoji-filled WhatsApp messages were used by Hamas as a coded signal to launch the invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023.
By World Israel News
Hamas launched the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel using emoji-laden messages on WhatsApp, with certain emojis serving as codes to signal the beginning of the attack, multiple Israeli media outlets reported Monday.
This practice was identified by Israeli intelligence only in the wake of the Oct. 7 invasion, and was discovered when Israeli analysts examined thousands of phones and WhatsApp messages seized in Gaza during the ensuing war.
The coded messages used by Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, appear innocuous, employing patterns of emojis with a predetermined secret meaning as a form of code.
According to media reports, certain symbols, like hearts, stars, and flowers, were heavily used in the coded messages to signal the beginning of the invasion.
The emoji-based code system was also used to direct terrorists to specific locations.
The IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate discovered the code system several weeks after the invasion, after ignoring the seemingly routine messages.
Some technical difficulties also prevented the directorate from spotting the use of emojis as military code earlier, including WhatsApp’s data encryption, and the failure of those monitoring the communications to flag WhatsApp messages in real time, enabling intelligence officials to spot the link between the messages and events on the ground.
A report by Israel Hayom claimed that following the invasion, officials in the directorate had stumbled on another flaw in its handling of intel regarding Hamas communications prior to Oct. 7.
In the wake of the invasion, the MID concluded that the intel establishment had missed what was later dubbed “intelligence without content,” referencing the patterns of communication unrelated to the messages themselves, such as the timing and volume of digital communications.
Notably, Israel monitored a significant increase in cellular communication inside Gaza before the invasion but failed to interpret this as a sign of an impending attack.
Finland was among more than a dozen countries that temporarily suspended contributions to UNRWA in…
The IDF said the circumstances of the incident remain under investigation.
So far, the main area affected has been Rasuwa, a mountainous district in central Nepal…
More than 79,000 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts, the report stated.
Netanyahu had said Iran tried to kill one of his sons but declined to identify…
The West should not have to wait for Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon—when it…