Last week there were a couple reports that Hamas fighters who invaded Israel had detailed maps and plans for targeting specific sites. That information had been found on their bodies after they were killed. Here’s a bit of what NBC News reported.

Documents exclusively obtained by NBC News show that Hamas created detailed plans to target elementary schools and a youth center in the Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Sa’ad, to “kill as many people as possible,” seize hostages and quickly move them into the Gaza Strip.

The attack plans, which are labeled “top secret” in Arabic, appear to be orders for two highly trained Hamas units to surround and infiltrate villages and target places where civilians, including children, gather.

Today, the Atlantic has a story up about another document used by the Hamas invaders. This one gives them instructions on how to kidnap Israelis, including women and children, and use them as human shields.

The Atlantic obtained a copy of the manual from an IDF official, who vouched for its authenticity and who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the materials. Israeli President Isaac Herzog had earlier referred to the document in an interview on CNN, calling it “an instruction guide, how to go into civilian areas, into a kibbutz, a city, a moshav [agricultural co-op].” He said it described “exactly how to torture them, how to abduct them, how to kidnap them.”

The hostage-taking, according to the manual, is meant to happen “in the field,” in areas that have been “cleansed” and brought under control. After the hostages are brought together, it says, they should be culled (“kill those expected to resist and those that pose a threat”); the others should be bound and blindfolded, then “reassured,” to keep them docile. “Use them as human shields,” it says, and use “electric shocks” to force compliance.

“Kill the difficult ones,” it adds. It specifically notes the need to separate women and children from men—confirmation that the snatching of children was planned from the start, and not the product of some kind of excess fervor following battlefield success.

What’s interesting about this manual is that it suggests the original plan wasn’t to kidnap Israelis and drag them back to Gaza but to hold them as human shields in occupied parts of Israel. The author of the story, Graeme Wood, suggests that’s why the transport of hostages back to Gaza appeared so haphazard, with some being brought on motorcycles, some in trucks and others in gold carts. None of this seems to have been planned for in the manual.

Hostage takers were supposed to hold out as long as they could in Israel and when they did eventually pull out they were told to mark the places where their fellow fighters had been buried “so they can be disinterred and moved after Israel’s eventual withdrawal from the land.”

This idea that they would eventually retake the territory after Israel’s withdrawal might just be wishful thinking but it sort of matches with the idea that the plan here was that this attack would lead to a final battle with Israel in which Palestinians, Hezbollah, Iran and other forces would all be inspired to join in and finish Israel off once and for all. Remember, that was the view of Israeli Hamas expert Kobi Michael. Here’s what he said in an interview:

What was the strategic aim of such an operation, considering that they knew for sure that the price tag would be very high and they were endangering their very existence? I’m sure that Hamas was sure that the shock and horror of this operation and the casualties that they would cause would be interpreted by all the Palestinians, that this was a sign from God that this was the time to open all the battlefronts and to fight Israel and this will be the end of the state of Israel. They were sure about it…

This attack last weekend was not intended to release Hamas prisoners held in Israeli jails. The objective was much bigger, and I think this was to encourage the Palestinians in the West Bank and all over Israel to open other battlefronts against Israeli targets.

So the fighters were supposed to hold the territory using hostages as human shields and only retreat if necessary. Even then they were expecting to return once Israel was gone. And it seems most of the Hamas fighters tried to carry that out. The problem was that they were outmatched once the Israeli army finally engaged. Israel said they killed 1,500 of them. The only ones who did leave and return to Gaza were the ones who returned with Israeli hostages.

Finally, Jeryl Bier notes that the claim that Hamas uses “human shields” has recently been labeled an Islamophobic trope. And yet, here’s this manual in Arabic telling Hamas fighters to do exactly that.

Care to weigh in on this @TheAtlantic story, @KarenAttiah?

"Hamas’s newly discovered hostage-taking manual says to 'kill the difficult ones' and use hostages as 'human shields'"

"The claim that Hamas uses people as “human shields” is an Islamophobic trope" – @elgindy_ https://t.co/zUjXMI5Iu6 pic.twitter.com/5LuSSN1lso

— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) October 19, 2023