Al Majd, the website of the Palestinian Arab security forces in Gaza, claims to have revealed the methods used by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) in sending Arab agents to track the progress of terror tunnel digging.
The site's revelation follows the arrest of a Gazan farmer called "A.D.," suspected of being a Shin Bet agent.
A.D. was reportedly told to buy farm land close to where terror tunnels were being dug, and then buy a ton of dirt, ostensibly for farming purposes, from a guard at the dig site.
After the dirt purchases were repeated several times, the guard reported the matter to Hamas. Under interrogation, A.D. admitted to secretly sending samples of the dirt to his Israeli controllers. Al Majd claims the samples helped Israeli intelligence determine the depth of the tunnels, and that the amount of dirt gave them details about the progress of digging.
Clashes between the IDF and Hamas left five soldiers wounded in late October during the demolition of a terror tunnel leading from Gaza to an Israeli kibbutz. The following week, a Hamas spokesman vowed the organization would continue digging terror tunnels.
Al Majd claims Shin Bet instructs Arab agents to gather intelligence through various activities such as tracking, surveillance, passing reports and spreading rumors among the public.
Shin Bet's tactics have been reported on in the past, and are not limited to targets in Gaza.
An expose on Israeli TV in May revealed how the organization sends women to tempt Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria into having an affair, and then uses video evidence to force them into helping Shin Bet spy on fellow Jews. Other agents have reportedly married residents of the area and infiltrated the community to spy from within.
In August, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu praised the Shin Bet and Mossad (Israel's spy agency that operates abroad), saying "your secret activity is an important element in the security of the citizens of Israel. It is part of the aggressive security policy that has restored Israel's power of deterrence in recent years."