How Hamas built a force to attack Israel on October 7
BBC News analysis shows five groups of fighters carried out four drills from December 2020.
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BBC News analysis shows five groups of fighters carried out four drills from December 2020.
BBC Arabic and BBC Verify have pieced together how armed groups came together to train for the assault.
BBC Arabic and BBC Verify have pieced together how armed groups came together to train for the assault.
A slickly produced two-minute propaganda video posted to social media by Hamas on Sept. 12 shows fighters using explosives to blast through a replica of the border gate, sweep in on pickup trucks and then move building by building through a full-scale reconstruction of an Israeli town, firing automatic weapons at human-silhouetted paper targets.
Less than a month before Hamas fighters blew through Israel’s high-tech “Iron Wall” and launched an attack that would leave more than 1,200 Israelis dead, they practiced in a very public dress rehearsal.