Gaza’s ruling Hamas said Saturday that Israeli undercover forces had
attempted to install equipment to monitor the group’s landline
communications network during a botched mission in November.
The findings of a lengthy investigation were announced by the Hamas
military wing, known as the Qassam Brigades, in a pre-recorded TV
statement.
Hamas presented surveillance footage, as well as photos of drills, chain
saws and two pistols with silencers, to back up its claims.
Hamas thwarted an attempt to “plant spying devices in the Gaza Strip,” a
Qassam spokesman, identified only as Abu Obeida, said in the statement.
Israel’s military has not released details about the operation which
went awry Nov. 11, leading to the heaviest round of cross-border fire,
including Hamas rockets and Israeli airstrikes, since a 2014 war between
the two sides.
The Hamas statement described an Israeli mission that allegedly spanned close to a year.
Abu Obeida said Israel brought equipment and vehicles into Gaza through a
commercial crossing point between January and October. Fifteen members
of the unit entered Gaza on a foggy night through the perimeter fence a
few days before Nov. 11, the spokesman said.
A woman working with the Israeli unit entered Gaza several times,
disguised as an employee of a humanitarian organization, the spokesman
said. Members of the unit used forged IDs of local Gazans and the
documents of a charity group, he added.
On Nov. 11, the unit was detected by Hamas fighters as it drove near the
town of Abassan in southern Gaza. The discovery sparked a firefight, in
which a member of the undercover unit and two Hamas gunmen, including a
local commander, were killed. Five other militants were killed in
airstrikes as Israeli aircrafts provided cover to airlift the force,
including the dead officer.
In the televised statement, Hamas showed low-resolution surveillance
camera footage purportedly showing two vehicles being used by the
undercover squad. The footage showed some faces of the occupants of the
vehicles and what Hamas said was the moment its gunmen searched the van.
According to the investigation, which confirmed previous reports, the
firefight began when a local Hamas commander, Nour Baraka, ordered the
detention of the occupants of the van who then shot him with silencer
pistols. In the exchange of fire, a member of the Israeli force and
another Hamas gunman were also killed before the van sped away.
Hamas said the slain Israeli commander of the group was an Arab with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
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