The Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar has for years overseen a secret police power in Gaza that performed surveillance on on a regular basis Palestinians and constructed recordsdata on younger individuals, journalists and those that questioned the federal government, in keeping with intelligence officers and a trove of inside paperwork reviewed by The New York Instances.
The unit, often called 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 information recommend that the authorities adopted individuals to find out in the event that they have been carrying on romantic relationships exterior marriage.
Hamas has future an oppressive system of governance in Gaza, and lots 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 signify 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 seen as threats to be undermined.
On a regular basis Gazans have been caught — behind the wall of Israel’s crippling blockade and beneath the thumb and fixed watch of a safety power. That dilemma continues right now, with the added risk of Israeli floor troops and airstrikes.
“We’re going through 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 cellphone interview from Gaza.
Mr. Fasfous, 51, is labeled in a single report as amongst “the key haters of the Hamas motion.”
The paperwork have been supplied 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 embrace seven intelligence recordsdata starting from October 2016 to August 2023. The navy intelligence directorate mentioned it was conscious of recordsdata containing data on at the least 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
The Common Safety Service is formally a part of the Hamas political get together however capabilities like a part of the federal government. One Palestinian particular person acquainted with the inside workings of Hamas, who spoke on the situation of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed that the service was one among three highly effective inside safety our bodies in Gaza. The others have been Navy Intelligence, which usually focuses on Israel, and the Inner Safety Service, an arm of the Inside Ministry.
Basem Naim, a spokesman for Hamas, mentioned the individuals answerable for the Common Safety Service have been unreachable in the course of the conflict.
With month-to-month bills of $120,000 earlier than the conflict with Israel, the unit comprised 856 individuals, information present. Of these, greater than 160 have been paid to unfold Hamas propaganda and launch on-line assaults towards opponents at dwelling and overseas. The standing of the unit right now is unknown as a result of Israel has dealt a major blow to Hamas’s navy and governing talents.
The Israeli intelligence authorities consider that Mr. Sinwar instantly oversaw the Common Safety Service, in keeping with 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 targeted on the non-public safety of Hamas leaders. Others mentioned methods to stamp out protests, together with the “We Need to Dwell” 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 ways, like amplifying Hamas’s personal message, gave the impression to be routine politicking. In different cases, officers prompt utilizing intelligence to undermine opponents and warp their reputations, although the recordsdata have been imprecise about how that was to be performed.
“Enterprise quite a lot of offensive and defensive media campaigns to confuse and affect adversaries by utilizing personal and unique data,” the doc learn.
Safety officers stopped Mr. Fasfous on his method to a protest final August, seized his cellphone 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 critical as a result of he’s a unfavorable one that is filled 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 cellphone to ship flirtatious messages to a colleague. “They needed to pin an ethical violation on me,” he mentioned.
The report doesn’t embrace 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 turn 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 firms. He mentioned he helped run their social media accounts.
The Common Safety Service’s objectives are just like these of safety providers in international locations like Syria which have used secret models to quell dissent. The recordsdata of the Common Safety Service, although, point out ways like censorship, intimidation and surveillance fairly 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 an eye fixed on the road.”
Palestinians in Gaza reside in concern and hesitate to precise dissent, analysts mentioned.
“There are lots of people working towards self-censorship,” mentioned Mkhaimar Abusada, a professor of political science from Gaza Metropolis. “They simply 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 mentioned. “This rhetoric about civilians weren’t conscious, not concerned, it’s completely not true. They may 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 at some point, then greater than two hours the following. 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 night time. 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 beneficial summoning a person who claimed to be in possession of movies and footage.
The recordsdata additionally present that Hamas was suspicious of overseas 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 beneficial additional “reconnaissance” on journalists.
Not one of the recordsdata reviewed by The Instances have been dated after the beginning of the conflict. However Mr. Fasfous mentioned the federal government remained inquisitive about him.
Early within the conflict, he mentioned he took photos of safety forces hitting individuals who fought over spots in line exterior 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 received’t damage him, however that fell on deaf ears,” he mentioned. “We will’t have a life right here so long as these criminals stay in management.”
