How Hamas’s “Shadow Unit” fooled Israeli intelligence with a fake protest in Gaza

About seven months ago, Saudi channel Al Arabiya and Israeli media, with great attention and enthusiasm, reported on what appeared to be an anti-Hamas demonstration in Gaza and repeatedly circulated videos of the event.
But field reports and the testimony of one Israeli soldier recently released by the resistance now indicate that the demonstration was fabricated and orchestrated by Hamas itself.

Arab media and social networks, quoting the released Israeli soldier, revealed that the demonstration held roughly seven months ago in Gaza — which Hebrew media labeled a “popular protest against Hamas” — was actually part of a complex deception operation led by the “Shadow Unit” affiliated with the Al-Qassam Brigades.
The soldier, whose identity was not disclosed and who was freed in the latest prisoner exchange, disclosed that members of the Shadow Unit were present among the demonstrators and that the march route from Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun to Khan Younis was covered by them.

During the demonstration, some prisoners — with their faces covered and wearing masks — were moved into a house and then transferred through a complex network of tunnels, without being detected by Israeli drones and surveillance systems.

He added that the Israeli captives even took part in leading chants and the staged public display; some were carried on shoulders so they would fully blend into the demonstration.
The operation was not only designed to transfer captives securely but also served as an opportunity to identify dozens of collaborators of the occupying regime inside Gaza — individuals linked to the groups Abu Shabab and Daghmash — who were subsequently dealt with.

Now, the “Shadow Unit” is tasked with cleansing Gaza of spies and traitors — an operation that, observers say, has managed to confound some of the world’s most sophisticated intelligence apparatuses.