GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A calm has descended over Gaza in recent months with no military confrontations between Palestinian armed factions and Israel following agreement on Egyptian-mediated understandings in May to ease the pressure of the blockade on the enclave. That said, it appears the factions and Israel are engaged in another type of war. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza on Oct. 9 posted two audio recordings on its website in connection with accusing Israel of using new tools — an apparent reference to a disinformation and intelligence-gathering campaign waged through social media — to entice or entrap residents into collaborating through espionage and assisting in targeting faction leaders for assassination.
In an Oct. 13 statement, Interior Ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bazm said that Israeli intelligence has doubled its efforts in the past two years to recruit agents in Gaza. The campaign is said to involve phoning people under the guise of being members from medical and charitable institutions, sporting associations and students aid centers. The Interior Ministry claims that one of the recordings it released is a phone call to a Gaza resident by an Israeli intelligence officer who pretended to be from a charity association. The alleged true purpose of the call was to drag him into collecting information on resistance members living nearby.
