A inspection team infiltrated at midnight, bypassing the security guard at the base without being checked, disguised as officers, and roamed within the facility for three hours without any obstruction, collecting hundreds of secret documents and data from computers.
The inspection team from the General Staff impersonated officers with the rank of Major and Lieutenant Colonel on the night between the annual commemoration of fallen soldiers and Independence Day, about a month ago, successfully sneaking into the 8200 unit base of military intelligence in the Gilbo'a camp in Ramat Hasharon, according to a report published by Walla on Thursday morning. The three members of the inspection team breached the base's security guard at midnight, disguised as officers, and went unsearched, wandering inside the secret facility for nearly three hours without any obstacles, collecting hundreds of classified documents and confidential data materials from computers.
The operation itself involves considerable risk, as those individuals could have caused material damage to the base's infrastructure and its soldiers if they had been real enemies, which would have been a massive blow to the Israeli army and Israel. The inspection team decided to stop at a certain point and contacted officials to report on the depth of the failure and their freedom of action in base 8200, even informing them that they could have easily filmed and broadcast the numerous secret materials they encountered without anyone stopping them.
The Israeli army, for its part, tried to downplay the extent of the failure, claiming that repeated inspections had been carried out since then and were more successful, despite it being less than a month overall since that incident. Typically, recurring failures in the Israeli army are examined over months or years, noting that around 30 soldiers and officers have been punished as a result of the oversight.
This incident has raised a lot of concern, especially as it comes on the heels of the significant infiltration carried out by Hamas on October 7, which led to catastrophic results whose effects are still escalating. There are fears within security and political circles about the erosion of Israeli deterrence, a key element in the security system that Israel is working hard to strengthen amid increasing challenges.
