Yaakov Katz details the intel that helped the IDF utterly destroy the major Hamas centers in the first day of the Gaza operation:
A year of information-gathering by Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) paved the way Saturday for Operation Cast Lead.
At 11:30 a.m., more than 50 fighter jets and attack helicopters swept into Gazan airspace and dropped more than 100 bombs on 50 targets. The planes reported “alpha hits,” IAF lingo for direct hits on the targets, which included Hamas bases, training camps, headquarters and offices.
Thirty minutes later, a second wave of 60 jets and helicopters struck at 60 targets, including underground Kassam launchers – placed inside bunkers and missile silos – that had been fitted with timers.
Their locations were discovered in an intensive intelligence operation. The goal: to strike at Hamas’s ability to fire rockets into Israel.
Awesome intel.
This will not make the mainstream media, here or abroad, but note the Palestinian claims–not likely to be understated–that of the 270 they calim are dead, 15 are civilians. In other words, the great majority of people killed are what the media politely term “fighters” or “militants.”
Nonetheless, this will prompt any number of claims that the IDF is just going in shooting and making no attempt to minimize civilian casualties.