Asharq Al-Awsat Exclusive: Technical Error Foiled Hamas Plan to Attack Ashkelon Prison on Oct. 7

Israelis take cover in a bomb shelter while sirens sound as rockets from Gaza are launched towards Israel, in Ashkelon, southern Israel (Reuters)
Israelis take cover in a bomb shelter while sirens sound as rockets from Gaza are launched towards Israel, in Ashkelon, southern Israel (Reuters)
TT
20

Asharq Al-Awsat Exclusive: Technical Error Foiled Hamas Plan to Attack Ashkelon Prison on Oct. 7

Israelis take cover in a bomb shelter while sirens sound as rockets from Gaza are launched towards Israel, in Ashkelon, southern Israel (Reuters)
Israelis take cover in a bomb shelter while sirens sound as rockets from Gaza are launched towards Israel, in Ashkelon, southern Israel (Reuters)

Hamas was planning to storm Ashkelon Central Prison, close to the Gaza Strip, during the al-Aqsa Flood operation on Oct. 7 to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, in a mission that would have constituted another unprecedented blow to Israel.
In a special report, Asharq Al-Awsat revealed the details of the attack, which was supposed to target the prison but failed due to a technical error that led the attacking group to a nearby settlement instead of the prison.
Sources in the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip told Asharq Al-Awsat that one of the first groups affiliated with the elite unit of the al-Qassam Brigades had a mission to reach Ashkelon Prison, which contains hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in an attempt to liberate them, but the mission failed.
Sources close to the command of al-Qassam Brigades revealed that one of the groups consisted of 23 fighters and was explicitly assigned to reach Ashkelon Prison and free prisoners from it.
Another group's mission was to infiltrate a military base in the Ashkelon area before moving on to assist those already at the prison.
The sources reported that the group set off towards Ashkelon, crossed the border, and reached Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, where it clashed with Israeli security forces. They also arrived in the Netiv HaAsara settlement.
Initial investigations showed the mistake resulted from the designated guide in charge of GPS and maps, who made a directional error leading the group southwards.
Precise intrusion plan
According to the sources, the plan to storm the prison was carefully drawn up and in sufficient detail, and al-Qassam wanted it to constitute a solid blow to Israel, among other strikes on Oct. 7.
They explained that the plan relied on attacking the main gate of the prison using explosives and anti-tank missiles to blow up the gate and security positions along the prison fence, alongside rocket fire from Gaza towards the prison, with a signal from the group that it was there.
Ashkelon Prison is about 13 kilometers from the nearest border point in the northern Gaza Strip, southeast of the city.
The plan also relied upon the cooperation of the prisoners to rise and riot, which would assist the group.
However, the Qassam command did not receive any signals from the group that it had reached the prison, and it later became clear that it had arrived in Sderot, so it was instructed to wait.
The group engaged in clashes that lasted for hours with the Israeli police and army forces, which led to the Israeli forces losing control of the town after two al-Qassam groups met there.
It appears that this was one of the reasons for the continued clashes in Sderot for about three days after the Palestinian attackers barricaded themselves inside the police station and settlers' homes.
The sources confirmed that the al-Qassam Brigade did not abandon the plan to storm the prison.
Four members who participated in the storming of kibbutz Zikim were instructed to continue to try and reach the prison but were repelled by Israeli security forces before being targeted by air strikes.
- Support unit
The al-Qassam leadership had sent "elite" support units to the groups that led the storming of the border with Israel to facilitate their tasks, especially after their success in capturing dozens of Israelis.
The troop's support succeeded in killing, wounding, and capturing more Israelis and transporting those who were captured into the Gaza Strip.
The entire attack was aimed at capturing Israeli soldiers to push Tel Aviv into an exchange deal after it ignored four detainees held by Hamas. The operation later expanded in an unplanned manner.
Al-Qassam Brigades did not conduct any extensive investigation into the failure of its members to reach Ashkelon Prison due to the ongoing war for more than 130 days.
- Why Ashkelon?
In Israel, Ashkelon Central Prison is known as "Shikma Prison," number 713 in the Southern District. It was established during the British Mandate as a headquarters for the British Army stationed in the city to receive official British delegations.
After the defeat of 1967, it was transformed into the Ashkelon Police Station. With the escalation of the Palestinian national resistance against the occupation and a significant increase in the number of prisoners, the Israeli army leadership issued a military decree opening the Ashkelon prison.
With the increase of Palestinian resistance and operations against Israel, increasing the number of detainees among them, there was an immediate need to open a prison, and it was decided that this building would become a maximum security prison.

Ashkelon Central Prison began receiving Palestinian prisoners at the beginning of 1969. It holds about a thousand detainees. Each prisoner is allotted one and a half meters of space, and the rooms are often crowded. They are forced into compulsory labor, leading to riots and collective strikes.
The prison is famous for its damp cells that do not receive sunlight and the harsh, unbearable heat.



Sudan’s Humanitarian Crisis Worsens amid Escalating Violence

FILE - People prepare local crops of sugar cane and watermelons for sale, at Abu Shouk refugee camp, where they live on the outskirts of El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan, Oct. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/John Heilprin, File)
FILE - People prepare local crops of sugar cane and watermelons for sale, at Abu Shouk refugee camp, where they live on the outskirts of El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan, Oct. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/John Heilprin, File)
TT
20

Sudan’s Humanitarian Crisis Worsens amid Escalating Violence

FILE - People prepare local crops of sugar cane and watermelons for sale, at Abu Shouk refugee camp, where they live on the outskirts of El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan, Oct. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/John Heilprin, File)
FILE - People prepare local crops of sugar cane and watermelons for sale, at Abu Shouk refugee camp, where they live on the outskirts of El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan, Oct. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/John Heilprin, File)

Fighting in Sudan's Kordofan region that has killed hundreds and ongoing violence in Darfur — the epicenters of the country's conflict — have worsened Sudan's humanitarian crisis, with aid workers warning of limited access to assistance.

The United Nations said more than 450 civilians, including at least 35 children, were killed during the weekend of July 12 in attacks in villages surrounding the town of Bara in North Kordofan province.

“The suffering in Kordofan deepens with each passing day,” Mercy Corps Country Director for Sudan Kadry Furany said in a statement shared with The Associated Press. “Communities are trapped along active and fast changing front lines, unable to flee, unable to access basic needs or lifesaving assistance.”

Sudan plunged into war after simmering tensions between the army and its rival, the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, escalated to fighting in April 2023. The violence has killed at least 40,000 people and created one of the world’s worst displacement and hunger crises, according to humanitarian organizations. In recent months, much of the fighting has been concentrated in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.

On Thursday, the UN human rights office confirmed that since July 10, the RSF has killed at least 60 civilians in the town of Bara, while civil society groups reported up to 300 people were killed, the office said.

A military airstrike on Thursday in Bara killed at least 11 people, all from the same family, according to the UN office. Meanwhile, between July 10 and 14, the army killed at least 23 civilians and injured over two dozen others after striking two villages in West Kordofan.

An aid worker with Mercy Corps said his brother was fatally shot on July 13 during an attack on the village of Um Seimima in El Obeid City in North Kordofan, Grace Wairima Ndungu, the group’s communications manager told AP.

Furany said that movement between the western and eastern areas of the Kordofan region is “practically impossible.”

The intensified fighting forced Mercy Corps to temporarily suspend operations in three out of four localities, with access beyond Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, now being in “serious doubt,” Furany said, as a safe sustained humanitarian corridor is needed.

Mathilde Vu, an aid worker with the Norwegian Refugee Council who is often based in Port Sudan, told the AP that fighting has intensified in North Kordofan and West Kordofan over the past several months.

“A large number of villages are being destroyed, burned to the ground, people being displaced,” she said. “What is extremely worrying about the Kordofan is that there is very little information and not a lot of organizations are able to support. It is a complete war zone there.”

Marwan Taher, head of mission with humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, told the AP that military operations in Kordofan heightened insecurity, prompting scores of people to flee to Darfur, a region already in a dire humanitarian situation.

The NRC said that since April, Tawila has already received 379,000 people escaping violence in famine-hit Zamzam Camp and Al Fasher.

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration recently reported that over 46,000 people were displaced from different areas in West Kordofan in May alone due to clashes between warring parties.

Taher said those fleeing El Fasher to Tawila walk long distances with barely enough clothes and little water, and sleep on the streets until they arrive at the area they want to settle in. The new wave of displacement has brought diseases, including measles, which began spreading in parts of Zalingi in Central Darfur in March and April as camps received people fleeing Kordofan.

Aid workers also warned about ongoing fighting in Darfur. Vu said there have been “uninterrupted campaigns of destruction” against civilians in North Darfur.
“In Darfur there’s been explicit targeting of civilians. There’s been explicit execution,” she said.

Shelling killed five children Wednesday in El Fasher in North Darfur, according to UN spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay. Meanwhile, between July 14 and 15, heavy rains and flooding displaced over 400 people and destroyed dozens of homes in Dar As Salam, North Darfur.

With a looming rainy season, a cholera outbreak and food insecurity, the situation in Darfur is “getting worse every day and that’s what war is,” said Taher.