“There is one phenomenon that worries Hamas almost as much as the Israeli military in Gaza: the thousands of informants who risk their lives for Israel,” the Jewish Chronicle reported.

Without informants, there would be no hostage rescue operations and targeted killings of senior Hamas officials. But what motivates the informants and how are they recruited?

Informants’ fundamental mission is to locate targets: Hamas leaders, weapons production tunnels, and Hamas terrorists who operate in the Gaza Strip in civilian clothing. The informant then transmits the information to his Israeli handlers but rarely by phone or other devices due to fear of exposure. Instead, the information is conveyed in person at one of the Israeli kibbutzim in the Gaza border area.

The only time a phone or another device is used is in exceptional circumstances such as when the information is “hot” – for example, in the case of a senior Hamas leader visiting a certain place for an hour or two or information about the location of hostages who will soon be relocated. In such a case, the informant will call the number of an Israeli-Arab, for example, his “aunt” who asks him about the situation in Gaza. Of course, the “aunt” is an Israeli intelligence agent.

One of the informants who provided information that led to the elimination of Hamas leader Mohammed Deif was a 19-year-old Hamas messenger, whose job was to pass handwritten notes between Hamas members in tunnels underneath Gaza.

The informant is no longer located in Gaza as his handlers promised him that if Deif’s elimination was successful, he would be flown at Israel’s cost to the United States and provided asylum.

The process of recruiting an informant is long and complex. The first step is to uncover the potential informant’s weak point and what he needs – money, medical treatment, or an Israeli work permit. An informant who urgently needs something Israel can provide is the best candidate. Other informants’ weak points are social or psychological – the universal need to feel important and appreciated.

Since the war began, the Shin Bet has recruited hundreds of Gazans and the information they provided has led to impressive operations.

One Hamas terrorist who was captured by Israeli security forces during the war was recruited by Israeli intelligence forces. His Shin Bet handler gave him shoes with electronic chips and asked him to walk through the tunnels. His presence in the tunnels did not arouse suspicion because he was a known terrorist. The scans were sent directly to the Shin Bet headquarters in Ashkelon, eight miles from Gaza.

Shin Bet operatives also recruited an especially valuable informant – a Gazan contractor who was involved in the excavation of the tunnel network under the Strip. He provided his handlers with a map of the tunnels and provided details such as their size and the type of concrete he used – which helped the Air Force determine which bombs to use to destroy them. This informant was almost captured by Hamas but his handlers eventually managed to smuggle him into Israel.

Thousands of collaborators who fled Gaza and the Shomron after being exposed are now living in Israel, including all the Gazan informants who facilitated the rescue of four Israeli hostages from Gaza in June. Twelve members of two families were relocated to Israel, where they were granted citizenship and a monthly allowance until they find employment. One of the family members, a 12-year-old boy who is ill with cancer, is receiving free medical treatment at an Israeli hospital.

According to the IDF, 942 collaborators from Gaza and the Palestinian Authority were shot during the 1987 intifada, murdered by their own brethren in broad daylight in the town square in front of hundreds of locals as a warning. But this grisly history didn’t cause Palestinians to stop the dangerous work of collaboration. In fact, it increased over the years, reaching its peak after Hamas took control of Gaza and began attacking Israel almost daily – firing rockets and sending suicide bombers into Israeli cities.

Gazans are also motivated to become informants because of their anger at Hamas. The report’s author, Elon Perry, a former IDF commando who took part in hundreds of operations to locate and eliminate terrorists in Gaza in the 1980s, quoted his friend Saeed, a Gazan dentist, as saying:  “It is Hamas that is killing us, not the Israeli army.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)