In the past year alone, the Shin Bet foiled 450 terror attacks, among them attempted kidnappings and suicide bombings
he photos from the aftermath of the targeted strike on Islamic Jihad commander Bahu Abu el-Bata show a three-story apartment building with its top floor blown off.
That is where el-Bata, Islamic Jihad’s commander in the northern Gaza Strip, and his wife were sleeping when the Israeli Air Force attacked last Tuesday morning at 4 a.m. He had been on Israel’s hit list for two years, often changing residences to escape Israeli detection. From the day his picture was publicized earlier this month, however, his days were numbered. He knew it himself. Although he tried to evade Israeli intelligence, the missile found him.
The man behind the operation was Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman, who has revolutionized the domestic intelligence agency since taking the helm in February 2016. He’s done so by emphasizing cyber operations as much as agents on the ground. In his view, a determined hacker can cause more damage to Israel than any lone wolf. And hacking the server of a terror organization can prove as useful as infiltrating a spy into its top ranks.
“The agency has reached a new level technologically,” says an intelligence figure in the know. “Not only in the classical technology that helps operatives on the ground, but also in cyber and in electronic intelligence gathering. There have been substantial improvements.”
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