The Israeli State Prosecutor's Office in the Southern District informed the Attorney General that it had prepared indictments against 22 fighters, accusing them of participating in battles that took place inside Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Sunday, this move came after military intelligence and the General Security Service (Shin Bet) obtained new material over the past few months from within the Gaza Strip.

This move is unprecedented in terms of the scope of the charges, as the Attorney General's Office is also working to advance nine new bills aimed at expediting the trials of fighters from Hamas's elite unit.

The newspaper noted that Israeli authorities have informed the United States of developments in this campaign, explaining that the Public Prosecution plans to file a mass indictment including hundreds of fighters from the elite unit.

This campaign is being run by a small team of attorneys in the Southern District Attorney's Office, working with teams from the police's Lahav 433 unit, the Shin Bet security service, and the Military Intelligence Directorate.

According to a security source, the Shin Bet attaches utmost importance to this case and continues to collect evidence from various locations the Israeli military has entered within the Gaza Strip, where it had not previously been present.

The expansion of military operations, prior to the ceasefire, enabled the seizure of media materials and electronic data that contributed to documenting evidence.

After collecting the material, Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet sort and analyze it, then hand the evidence over to the police, who in turn transfer it to the Public Prosecution.

An Israeli police source explained that "the locations of some of the arrested fighters were identified, and when the Shin Bet entered those areas, such as Rafah, it was able to obtain evidence against them."

To date, approximately 300 fighters have been arrested for their involvement in Operation Protective Edge to varying degrees. Some were arrested inside Israel on October 7, while others were captured during the IDF's ground operations in Gaza.

The Israeli political leadership believes that these detainees are classified as "terrorists" and should not be included in any hostage exchange deals.

However, there remains a category of detainees who did not directly participate in the fighting but rather held hostages inside the Strip. It has not yet been decided whether they will be included in the indictments or allocated for subsequent exchange deals.