Hamas busts spying cell in Gaza responsible for botched Israeli mission: Report

Rasa - Members of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, have reportedly uncovered and dismantled a spying network responsible for a recent botched intelligence mission in the Gaza Strip.

News ID: 441566

Date: 16 November 2018 - 17:25

RNA - Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Manar television network reported that Hamas intelligence units launched an intensive operation to identify and arrest those who had assisted Israeli forces in carrying out an operation east of Khan Younis on Sunday.

The report added that the detainees had all confessed to have been working for Israel’s internal spy agency, Shin Bet.

Informed sources, requesting not to be named, said Hamas intelligence forces made use of subtle techniques to arrest the Israeli agents, who had not aroused anyone’s suspicions.

At least seven Palestinians, including 37-year-old local battalion commander of al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing, Noor Baraka, lost their lives in the failed Israeli assault on November 11. An Israeli lieutenant colonel was killed and another officer was wounded in the action as well.

This comes following the latest escalation of violence by the Tel Aviv regime against the coastal enclave in which Israeli airstrikes and shells reduced Palestinian buildings to rubble and sent fireballs and plumes of smoke into the sky.

The fresh spate of the Israeli military aggression saw 14 people killed and several others injured in 48 hours.

According to Press TV, Hamas and other Gaza-based resistance groups announced a ceasefire with Israel in a joint statement on Tuesday evening, saying they would abide by the ceasefire as long as Israel did the same.

“Egypt's efforts have been able to achieve a ceasefire between the resistance and the Zionist enemy,” the statement read.

It added, “The resistance will respect this declaration as long as the Zionist enemy respects it.”

The regime regularly conducts air raids targeting Gaza.

In early July 2014, Israel waged a war on the Gaza Strip. The 50-day military aggression, which ended on August 26, 2014, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children. Over 11,100 others – including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people – were also wounded in the war.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

847/940