Secret Hamas Files Show How It Spied on Everyday Palestinians
Secret Hamas Files Show How It Spied on Everyday Palestinians
Hamas monitored political activity, online posts, and apparently even love lives. Palestinians were stuck between an Israeli blockade and a repressive security force.
The Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has for years overseen a secret police force in Gaza that conducted surveillance on everyday Palestinians and built files on young people, journalists and those who questioned the government, according to intelligence officials and a trove of internal documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The unit, known as the General Security Service, relied on a network of Gaza informants, some of whom reported their own neighbors to the police. People landed in security files for attending protests or publicly criticizing Hamas. In some cases, the records suggest that the authorities followed people to determine if they were carrying on romantic relationships outside marriage.
Hamas has long run an oppressive system of governance in Gaza, and many Palestinians there know that security officials watch them closely. But a 62-slide presentation on the activities of the General Security Service, delivered only weeks before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, reveals the degree to which the largely unknown unit penetrated the lives of Palestinians.
. . .
Everyday Gazans were stuck — behind the wall of Israel’s crippling blockade and under the thumb and constant watch of a security force. That dilemma continues today, with the added threat of Israeli ground troops and airstrikes.
Oh, look, a Look-over-there New York Times article about how it's the merelly authoritarian on the "other" side that are worse than the full blown Genocidal Fascists murdering an entire population - men, women and children, lots and lots of children - whilst claiming they're only going after said autoritarians.
I did NAZI that coming.
Oh look New York Times is trying to win another Pullitzer Prize.
Reminder that Leaked NYT Gaza Memo Tells Journalists to Avoid Words “Genocide,” “Ethnic Cleansing,” and “Occupied Territory”
Paywall and the archive doesn't work...
But it sounds like this was pretty tame compared to other countries.
Shit, Israel goes into Gaza and abducts people for torture and long imprisonment without charges based on social media and claimed statements to informants...
And this says Hamas followed people to see if they were having an affair?
And kept files on people? Some journalists?
Hasn't Israel killed more journalists than even Russia the last couple years?
I don't see what's surprising or concerning here. And I don't see where the article is getting their info either. Are they just repeating IDF propaganda again?
Nevermind, I googled it.
The author is from multiple propaganda outlets in Israel, and belongs to pro-Israel "think tank"...
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/experts/adam-rasgon
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Institute_for_Near_East_Policy
Although WINEP plays down its links to Israel and claims that it provides a 'balanced and realistic' perspective on Middle East issues, this is not the case. In fact, WINEP is funded and run by individuals who are deeply committed to advancing Israel's agenda ... Many of its personnel are genuine scholars or experienced former officials, but they are hardly neutral observers on most Middle East issues and there is little diversity of views within WINEP's ranks."[43]
Not only funded by AIPAC, but started be people with a bunch of AIPAC connections.
Has NYT only just figured out now that the nuance was never in Hamas being "the good guys" or not?
Hamas may be better than Israel right now in that they're not actively pulling a genocide, but nobody apart from Hamas thinks Hamas are really the good guys in this - but Hamas being a horrid government doesn't then somehow justify Israel's genocide against the "Everyday Palestinians" Hamas are oppressing.Oh my god that's awful.
Nearly as bad as an agency that does that to their own people and that of another nation.
Not seeing a lot of similar articles about Shin Bet though. Wonder why.....
Governments spy on their own citizens? This is more shocking than learning Ivy League unis give preference to legacy students
No shit. By the way I'm not defending netanyahu. He's a pos.
I feel like some internal US whataboutisms would actually be appropriate here.
Open secret
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has for years overseen a secret police force in Gaza that conducted surveillance on everyday Palestinians and built files on young people, journalists and those who questioned the government, according to intelligence officials and a trove of internal documents reviewed by The New York Times.
But a 62-slide presentation on the activities of the General Security Service, delivered only weeks before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, reveals the degree to which the largely unknown unit penetrated the lives of Palestinians.
Those people recounted key events, confirmed biographical information and, in Mr. Fasfous’s case, described interactions with the authorities that aligned with the secret files.
One Palestinian individual familiar with the inner workings of Hamas, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed that the service was one of three powerful internal security bodies in Gaza.
“This General Security Service is just like the Stasi of East Germany,” said Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli military intelligence officer specializing in Palestinian affairs.
An October 2016 report described young men and women performing unspecified “immoral acts” at a Palestine Liberation Organization office in Khan Younis at night.
The original article contains 1,459 words, the summary contains 197 words. Saved 86%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Overt Israeli actions show how it genocides everyday Palestinians.
I mean they are an oppressive police state just like israel ofc they spy on their own residents and prolly share the info with IDF in case they wanna get rid of someone they don't agree with or they'd be overthrown long ago if it wasn't for their authoritarianism and the tacit support/indifference from the israeli forces .Not all the journalist and dissidents that are being targeted/killed are done solely by israeli intel they are being fed that info from various sources including hamas. It would be a shocker if they aren't working together and sharing intel whenever it suits them to do so. Just like usa and their frenemies in Iraq or Afghanistan Ukraine or wherever they are operating. the western media will take this and turn it into a one sided hamas bad article without even mentioning israels complicit enabling policies.