Hamas has accused Israeli intelligence agents of using the telephone and Internet to blackmail Gaza Arabs into cooperating with Israeli efforts to infiltrate the Hamas terrorist network.
The de facto Gaza government has warned its populace against cooperating with Israel and said it has arrested several suspects. Earlier this month, Hamas executed two Arabs who were accused for spying for Israel, and it threatened further executions.
"We will continue to implement the death penalty for all those who are so sentenced," Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hamad said. "Anyone who finds himself in this treacherous condition is an agent and a spy. If there is a death sentence we will implement it immediately in order to preserve our people and its project of Jihad and liberation."
Hamad rejected condemnation by human rights groups and instead said it was carrying out “justice.”
The latest accusation by Hamas charges that Israeli agents blackmailed a Gaza rapist into revealing information that led to the elimination of several Hamas members.
Hamas Internal Security Service official Abu Abdullah said, “The occupation has begun to turn to Internet and phone lines, a common trick,” according to the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency.
He said that one Gazan Arab reported that a caller asked him about the availability of food and merchandise and about power cuts.
Hamas continues to investigate the January 20 Dubai assassination Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the terrorist group’s co-founders. Dubai police have suggested that the Israeli Mossad intelligence unit forged passports and carried out the counterterrorist operation.