Israel's domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, recently exposed a Hamas espionage ring operating in Israel. The ring was part of a wider and more disturbing trend, in which Hamas exploits humanitarian channels to orchestrate terrorist attacks against Israelis.
The terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip conducts nonstop efforts to carry out mass-casualty attacks against Israelis, and the Israeli defense establishment is constantly thwarting such plots in time, mostly behind the scenes. thus fostering a sense of calm on the ground.
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In actuality, the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas military wing, is interested in turning Israel's streets into scenes of bloodshed and chaos – a dark vision that Israel's intelligence and security communities work around the clock to prevent.
Hamas's efforts include bombings, shootings, kidnappings, and the Shin Bet disrupts hundreds of such plots every year.
One of the primary tactics chosen by Hamas to implement its policy is to take advantage of humanitarian channels, such as Israel's policy of allowing Gazans into its territory for medical treatment.
These patients are often used to relay instructions, funding, and sometimes even weapons to terrorist cells the Islamist terrorist group is cultivating in the West Bank. The spy ring most recently broken up had relied on the Family Reunification Law – humanitarian legislation designed to bring families together is part of this larger pattern – for its operations.
In the latest case to be revealed by the Shin Bet, Hamas' military wing sought out Gazans with Israeli citizenship to exploit their ability to move freely between Israel and the coastal enclave.
In this context, the Shin Bet arrested two suspects on Jan. 2: Rami Amoudi, 30, a Khan Younis resident who has been living in Tel Aviv since November 2019, and Rajab Dakah, 34, originally from Gaza who moved to Israel in 2017.
Amoudi's mother is a Jewish Israeli, while Dakah's mother is an Arab Israeli living in Lod, in central Israel. This made both men eligible for Israeli citizenship through the Family Reunification Law. Dakah left his wife and five children in Gaza to move to Israel, and traveled back to visit them every few months.
The Shin Bet investigation found that the two were recruited by Hamas while they were still living in Gaza, and then dispatched to Israel to conduct hostile espionage missions.
They were told to purchase cellular phones and SIM cards to maintain secret communications with their Hamas handlers.
Their missions allegedly included photographing a variety of defense installations in central Israel, such as military bases, police facilities, and the locations of Iron Dome air defense batteries, the Shin Bet stated.
Apart from exploiting Palestinians in need of medical care and those who hold Israeli citizenship, Hamas is also in the habit of siphoning off infrastructure materials that Israel transfers into Gaza for civilian use to build up its defenses and notorious grid of cross-border terrorist tunnels.
Pipes meant for waste plants end up as fodder for rocket mills, generators intended for civilians are deferred to the tunnels project, powering lights and other electric needs, and medical equipment earmarked for hospitals, especially oxygen tanks, go to tunnel diggers.
Hamas also regularly exploits Gaza's civilian mail system to try to import dual use equipment that has both civilian and military purposes to build up its attack capabilities. Those shipments include chemicals that fuel rockets, generators for tunnel digging, drones, digital microscopes, biometric equipment, cell phones designed for rugged field conditions, and fiberoptic cables.
There is little reason to believe that Hamas's well-established pattern of taking advantage of humanitarian openings to promote terrorism will change any time soon. Israel's security forces will continue to be on high alert for such dangerous activities, while remaining committed to the goal of assisting Gaza's civilians where possible, despite Hamas's activities.
Reprinted with permission from IPT News
