The Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar has for years overseen a secret police pressure in Gaza that carried out surveillance on on a regular basis Palestinians and constructed recordsdata on younger individuals, journalists and those that questioned the federal government, based on intelligence officers and a trove of inside paperwork reviewed by The New York Instances.
The unit, often known as the Common Safety Service, relied on a community of Gaza informants, a few of whom reported their very own neighbors to the police. Folks landed in safety recordsdata for attending protests or publicly criticizing Hamas. In some circumstances, the data recommend that the authorities adopted individuals to find out in the event that they have been carrying on romantic relationships outdoors marriage.
Hamas has future an oppressive system of governance in Gaza, and plenty of Palestinians there know that safety officers watch them carefully. However a 62-slide presentation on the actions of the Common Safety Service, delivered solely weeks earlier than the Oct. 7 assault on Israel, reveals the diploma to which the largely unknown unit penetrated the lives of Palestinians.
The paperwork present that Hamas leaders, regardless of claiming to characterize the individuals of Gaza, wouldn’t tolerate even a whiff of dissent. Safety officers trailed journalists and other people they suspected of immoral conduct. Brokers received criticism faraway from social media and mentioned methods to defame political adversaries. Political protests have been considered as threats to be undermined.
On a regular basis Gazans have been caught — behind the wall of Israel’s crippling blockade and below the thumb and fixed watch of a safety pressure. That dilemma continues immediately, with the added menace of Israeli floor troops and airstrikes.
“We’re dealing with bombardment by the occupation and thuggery by the native authorities,” Ehab Fasfous, a journalist within the Gaza Strip who appeared within the recordsdata of the Common Safety Service, mentioned in a telephone interview from Gaza.
Mr. Fasfous, 51, is labeled in a single report as amongst “the main haters of the Hamas motion.”
The paperwork have been offered to The Instances by officers in Israel’s navy intelligence directorate, who mentioned that they had been seized in raids in Gaza.
Reporters then interviewed individuals who have been named within the recordsdata. These individuals recounted key occasions, confirmed biographical data and, in Mr. Fasfous’s case, described interactions with the authorities that aligned with the key recordsdata. The paperwork reviewed by The Instances embody seven intelligence recordsdata starting from October 2016 to August 2023. The navy intelligence directorate mentioned it was conscious of recordsdata containing data on not less than 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
The Common Safety Service is formally a part of the Hamas political occasion however features like a part of the federal government. One Palestinian particular person accustomed to the inside workings of Hamas, who spoke on the situation of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed that the service was considered one of three highly effective inside safety our bodies in Gaza. The others have been Army Intelligence, which generally focuses on Israel, and the Inside Safety Service, an arm of the Inside Ministry.
Basem Naim, a spokesman for Hamas, mentioned the individuals chargeable for the Common Safety Service have been unreachable throughout the struggle.
With month-to-month bills of $120,000 earlier than the struggle with Israel, the unit comprised 856 individuals, data present. Of these, greater than 160 have been paid to unfold Hamas propaganda and launch on-line assaults in opposition to opponents at residence and overseas. The standing of the unit immediately is unknown as a result of Israel has dealt a major blow to Hamas’s navy and governing skills.
The Israeli intelligence authorities consider that Mr. Sinwar instantly oversaw the Common Safety Service, based on three Israeli intelligence officers, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to debate the matter publicly. They mentioned the slide present was ready for Mr. Sinwar personally, although they didn’t say how they knew that.
The presentation mentioned that the Common Safety Service works to guard Hamas’s individuals, property and knowledge, and to help its management’s decision-making.
Some slides centered on the non-public safety of Hamas leaders. Others mentioned methods to stamp out protests, together with the “We Wish to Reside” demonstrations final yr that criticized energy shortages and the price of dwelling. Safety officers additionally tracked operatives from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an ideologically aligned militant group that always companions with Hamas.
Some techniques, like amplifying Hamas’s personal message, gave the impression to be routine politicking. In different cases, officers instructed utilizing intelligence to undermine opponents and deform their reputations, although the recordsdata have been obscure about how that was to be carried out.
“Enterprise a variety of offensive and defensive media campaigns to confuse and affect adversaries by utilizing non-public and unique data,” the doc learn.
Safety officers stopped Mr. Fasfous on his method to a protest final August, seized his telephone and ordered him to go away, a report says. Mr. Fasfous confirmed that two plainclothes officers had approached him. The authorities searched his current calls, and wrote that he was speaking with “suspicious individuals” in Israel.
“We advise that closing in on him is important as a result of he’s a detrimental one who is stuffed with hatred, and solely brings forth the Strip’s shortcomings,” the doc mentioned.
Essentially the most irritating factor, Mr. Fasfous mentioned, was that the officers used his telephone to ship flirtatious messages to a colleague. “They needed to pin an ethical violation on me,” he mentioned.
The report doesn’t embody that element however does describe methods to “take care of” Mr. Fasfous. “Defame him,” the report mentioned.
“In the event you’re not with them, you change into an atheist, an infidel and a sinner,” Mr. Fasfous mentioned. He acknowledged supporting protests and criticizing Hamas on-line, however mentioned the individuals he was in contact with in Israel have been Palestinians who owned meals and clothes corporations. He mentioned he helped run their social media accounts.
The Common Safety Service’s objectives are just like these of safety providers in nations like Syria which have used secret items to quell dissent. The recordsdata of the Common Safety Service, although, point out techniques like censorship, intimidation and surveillance moderately than bodily violence.
“This Common Safety Service is rather like the Stasi of East Germany,” mentioned Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli navy intelligence officer specializing in Palestinian affairs. “You at all times have a watch on the road.”
Palestinians in Gaza reside in worry and hesitate to precise dissent, analysts mentioned.
“There are lots of people practising self-censorship,” mentioned Mkhaimar Abusada, a professor of political science from Gaza Metropolis. “They only don’t need issues with the Hamas authorities.”
That view clashes with probably the most strident feedback of Israel’s leaders, like President Isaac Herzog, who blamed Gazans for not toppling Hamas earlier than the Oct. 7 assaults.
“There’s a whole nation that’s accountable,” he said. “This rhetoric about civilians weren’t conscious, not concerned, it’s completely not true. They might have risen up.”
The Common Safety Service, the recordsdata present, additionally tried to implement a conservative social order.
In December 2017, for instance, the authorities investigated a tip {that a} lady was appearing immorally with a person who owned a clothes store. A safety report famous that she visited the store for an hour on sooner or later, then greater than two hours the subsequent. The report introduced no proof of wrongdoing, however proposed that “related events” deal with the matter.
An October 2016 report described younger women and men performing unspecified “immoral acts” at a Palestine Liberation Group workplace in Khan Younis at evening. Hamas sees the Palestine Liberation Group as a compromised entity, whose chief too typically favors Israeli pursuits. The report supplied no proof of misdeeds however advisable summoning a person who claimed to be in possession of movies and footage.
The recordsdata additionally present that Hamas was suspicious of international organizations and journalists.
When Monique van Hoogstraten, a Dutch reporter, visited a protest encampment alongside the border with Israel in April 2018, the authorities famous probably the most banal of particulars. They famous the make and mannequin of her automotive and her license plate quantity. They mentioned she took footage of youngsters and tried to interview an aged lady. Ms. van Hoogstraten confirmed the reporting journey in an interview with The Instances.
The file advisable additional “reconnaissance” on journalists.
Not one of the recordsdata reviewed by The Instances have been dated after the beginning of the struggle. However Mr. Fasfous mentioned the federal government remained taken with him.
Early within the struggle, he mentioned he took photos of safety forces hitting individuals who fought over spots in line outdoors a bakery. The authorities confiscated his digital camera.
Mr. Fasfous complained to a authorities official in Khan Younis, who instructed him to cease reporting and “destabilizing the inner entrance,” Mr. Fasfous recalled.
“I instructed him I used to be reporting on the reality and that the reality gained’t damage him, however that fell on deaf ears,” he mentioned. “We are able to’t have a life right here so long as these criminals stay in management.”
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