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Foreign journalists accuse Hamas of SMS threats

Hamas officials deny they had anything to do with the messages allegedly sent by the party's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
A Palestinian member of the Al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, gives a speech during a rally marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of Hamas, in Gaza City December 8, 2012. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, making his first ever visit to the Gaza Strip, vowed on Saturday never to recognise Israel and said his Islamist group would never abandon its claim to all Israeli territory. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS ANNIVERSARY CIVIL UNREST MILITARY) - RTR3BCKX

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — More than 60 Palestinian, foreign and Israeli journalists who work with foreign media outlets in Israel and Jerusalem received threatening text messages on their Israeli mobiles on Saturday night, March 22. The messages were in both Arabic and English, and included the name of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement.

Josef Federman, news editor at The Associated Press' Jerusalem bureau, said that at about 8 p.m. Saturday he received four text messages in Hebrew and English on his Israeli number which contained threats.

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