A Saudi-owned Arabic daily, citing Palestinian sources, reported that Israeli security services called Hamas members in Gaza just before airstrikes and forced a choice on them. Israeli authorities have given no official response, and no recordings or other independent evidence have been published.
South Korea’s Kyunghyang Shinmun reported on the 1st, citing The Times of Israel, that the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat published the account on the 30th local time. According to the report, an agent of Israel’s domestic intelligence service Shin Bet phoned Hamas members and told them to choose between dying alone or being wiped out with their families. At least five such cases in recent months were reported.
광고 문의 · 300×250The single named case
Only one case was named. According to the report, Muhammad Aliyan al-Bayouk, a Hamas member in Khan Younis in the south, received a call from a Shin Bet agent before a strike on the 28th of last month. He was reportedly told to climb to the roof alone and be targeted, or stay home and have his family hit as well. He went to the roof and was killed; an aunt who ran after him to stop him was seriously injured.
However, this is a second-hand account relying on Palestinian sources. In overseas sites summarizing Israeli reports, some name Shin Bet as the caller while others say the Israeli military, so details differ. Much of it is relayed without anyone having seen the original article directly, and no recording of the calls has been released.
The military’s account and the open questions
The Israeli military said al-Bayouk was one of four Hamas operatives killed in strikes across southern Gaza on the 28th, and that two more died in a strike in Nuseirat in central Gaza on the 30th. It said they were preparing attacks on troops and civilians and trying to rebuild Hamas’s combat capability. Neither Shin Bet nor the military has officially commented on the phone-call reports themselves.
Reuters reported that Israeli strikes killed at least eight Palestinians in Gaza on the 1st, including five police officers. The figure follows Reuters; the affiliation of the dead and the circumstances of the strikes were not independently verified.
The Kyunghyang report carried no reaction from human rights groups or international law experts, and this newspaper found no specific statement by a rights group on the report. Whether advance warnings protect civilians or amount to using families as leverage can only be judged once the facts are established. Israel has long said Hamas operates among civilians, while the Palestinian side points to heavy civilian casualties. The accuracy of the report, and whether it reflects any policy, remains unconfirmed.