The Shin Bet and Hamas in the Gaza Strip

Hamas' interior ministry issued sentences of 14 collaborators with Israel to deter the residents of the Gaza Strip and emphasize its "control" of the security situation.

However, a study of the material published by Hamas indicates that the Israeli security services are able to use efficiently and sophisticated collaborators in the Gaza Strip to bring high-quality intelligence information about Hamas.

As time passes, it turns out that Hamas is under great pressure in Palestinian public opinion as a result of exposing the special activity of the IDF force in Khan Yunis. The propaganda campaign and the excessive psychological warfare it is waging against Israel create feelings among Gazans that the organization is in dire straits, Israeli intelligence operated in the Gaza Strip under his nose for a long time.

Residents of the Gaza Strip say that the organization's pride was compromised when it was exposed to part of the IDF's special intelligence activity, where Gazans ask where the Hamas security services have lost their vigilance and why they have not taken sufficient measures to prevent IDF soldiers from entering the Gaza Strip. It turns out that the soldiers of the special Hamas force intended to maintain the breaches on the Gaza border with Israel did not notice any penetration of Israeli forces into the Gaza Strip.

It is not at all certain that the Hamas claim is true that soldiers of the IDF special force entered the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing and their equipment through the Kerem Shalom crossing. Fatah sources say that Hamas points to a so-called "breach" at the border crossings with Israel, From him to the PA that has officials at these crossings and to hint that it has helped IDF soldiers enter the Gaza Strip.

On December 3, Hamas' interior ministry convened a press conference to inform the Gazan public of the fate of 14 collaborators with Israel captured by the Hamas security forces.

These are collaborators operating in the Gaza Strip between 2000 and 2017.

The press conference was meant to emphasize in the media that the organization supposedly controls the Gaza Strip completely and that it manages to capture anyone who is a spy for Israel or in any way aids its intelligence apparatuses.

Iyad al-Bazam, spokesman for the Hamas interior ministry, said that his organization would "purge the Gaza Strip of all collaborators" with Israel. "We will defend the resistance's back. Whatever the victims, the collaborators must understand that the Israeli occupation can not protect them. You'll get to them wherever they are, "he boasted.

The Interior Ministry's announcement emphasized that the collaborators with Israel had committed serious acts and provided valuable information that led to Israel hitting important targets of Hamas and killing the organization's operatives.

At the press conference, it was reported that six collaborators with Israel were sentenced to death by shooting and hanging, and that 8 additional collaborators were sentenced to prison terms of between 6 and 15 years with hard labor.

The objectives of the Israeli GSS

According to the open material published by the Hamas Interior Ministry on the activities of the collaborators with Israel, it is possible to deduce what the Israeli Shin Bet was interested in and the objectives on which it collected intelligence material.

A) The tunnels

B. The location of the rockets and their launching sites

C. Operators of Hamas' military wing and commanders, their places of residence, their vehicles, their mobile phone numbers, and their ongoing activities.

D. Activities and bases of the Hamas naval commando unit.

The ► Information on Region Balance Fuqha residence of a senior military wing.

The identity of the senior fishermen in the Gaza Strip.

Methods of recruitment and operation

According to the published material, the collaborators in the Gaza Strip were recruited to the Israeli GSS via Facebook or via telephone calls from Israel.

The first phone call was made by Arabic-speaking women who were on the other side of the line. For example, in one case the spokesperson identified herself as a charity worker and in another case an attorney in an export and import company.

The collaborators received their tasks by telephone, using the Orange SIM cards that were transferred to them, they performed the tasks for the money they would receive at predetermined points (threes) to which they were instructed to arrive.

The collaborator who escaped to Israel

In a statement given by the Hamas interior ministry, he admitted that one of the collaborators managed to escape from the Gaza Strip to Israel.

This is a man named Adham who was recruited to the Shin Bet in 2008 by his aunt, who is an Israeli citizen of Israeli Arabs.

The aunt, Amal, 55, was sentenced to death by hanging without her.

The objective of the Hamas Interior Ministry in disseminating this information was to show the residents of the Gaza Strip that it is in a state of "complete control" over the security situation and deter residents from the possibility of enlisting in the Israeli GSS service through severe punishment.

However, this information indicates that the Israeli GSS works efficiently and wisely in the Gaza Strip and is able to recruit collaborators who provide it with important information. The agents are recruited and operated from afar, without the GSS agents endangering themselves.

It is not clear how long Hamas intends to continue its excessive psychological warfare against Israel in order to cover up its failures. It should be remembered that the IDF's special force operating in the Khan Yunis area was exposed by accident and not by Hamas intelligence activity.

The residents of the Gaza Strip are already used to hearing the explanations and excuses of Hamas that are no longer of particular interest to them. Already, voices are beginning to be heard among the Palestinian public that it would be better for the Hamas organization to stop this psychological warfare and find another way to restore its credibility because it has already "squeezed the lemon to the last drop" The subject is trite and boring.