Hamas is hunting for 'collaborators' after Israeli operation in Gaza: report
Hamas is searching for Palestinian collaborators who assisted Israeli special forces in a night raid last week in the Gaza Strip, Lebanese al-Akhbar news reported on Saturday.
The report suggested that Hamas is specifically looking for a van which was caught on surveillance footage. The van was allegedly used to help the covert Israeli special forces operation on November 11, which was exposed after a gun battle with local Hamas fighters erupted during what the IDF later described as an "intelligence-gathering mission."
A transcript of recordings of Hamas radio chatter obtained by Israel's Hadashot news earlier this week -- though unverified by Israeli authorities -- suggested that the IDF force was first flagged by a Hamas patrol who identified a "blue Volkswagen...driving suspiciously and very fast."
One Israeli soldier and seven Palestinians, including a senior Hamas military commander, were killed in the incident. Details of the raid, including the full identity of the officer killed during the mission, remain subject to military censor.
An IDF spokesperson revealed the following day that a special forces unit in Gaza had become "trapped in a highly complex situation" but responded "heroically" and managed to extract themselves to Israeli territory under aerial cover fire.
Al-Akhbar’s report on Saturday cited a Hamas official saying that the Israeli operation left the group in possession of Israeli spying equipment similar to what they discovered in a “spying cell” in Gaza in May.
“The Zionist enemy tried to achieve a major security breakthrough. It apparently tried to install equipment and build something that would make it easy for it to kill, hack and abduct,” Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya told the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV last week.
On Thursday, Hamas published pictures of Israeli operatives who purportedly took part in the November 11 raid near Khan Yunis.
The pictures were barred by Israel’s military censor which offered no comment on their authenticity.
"Hamas is currently involved in an attempt to decipher and understand the event that took place deep in Gaza on November 11 and every piece of information, even if it is considered harmless by those publishing it is liable to endanger human lives and cause harm to the country's security," a rare statement by the IDF military censor read.
The operation in Khan Ynes last week sparked the most severe flare-up in violence between Gaza and Israel since a 2014 war between the sides.
After vowing revenge for the botched special forces operation, Hamas fired an anti-tank guided missile at a civilian bus that had just moments before been filled with dozens of Israeli troops.
The bus attack was followed by a massive two-day bombardment in which nearly 500 rockets were fired by Gaza militants into Israeli communities adjacent to the border.
One man was killed and scores more injured in the onslaught, which saw a number of direct hits on houses in southern Israeli communities.
The flareup ended with a ceasefire agreement that prompted the shock resignation of Avigdor Liberman as defense minister, sparking political turmoil in Israel.
Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008, and recent months of unrest have repeatedly raised fears of a fourth.