The Shin Bet uncovered a scheme in which Hamas terrorists in Gaza use Palestinians from the West Bank, sometimes without their knowledge, as aid in carrying out terror attacks, the intelligence agency revealed on Wednesday.
This activity is managed by the “Bank Staff” – a Hamas body in Gaza that’s managed by people once exiled from Israel in the Gilad Schalit deal.
How does the scheme work?
The terrorists in the Gaza Strip hide their real identities and pose as business companies, recruit young Palestinians from the West Bank for paid “work” and send them to carry out various tasks. Some of them were transferring funds meant for buying weapons for terror attacks, others transported packages with weapons or ammunition in them without knowing the true nature of their cargo.
The weapons and funds handled by the unwitting delivery people were intended to ultimately be delivered to Hamas terrorists in the West Bank who are recruited from Gaza to carry out terror attacks. Furthermore, some of the messengers, who were in contact with Hamas terrorists in Gaza, had been charged with weapons trafficking in the past. As a result, some of them were indicted in a military court.
One of the detainees is Salam Zid, a 27-year-old resident of the Jenin refugee camp. In July 2022, he was contacted by an unknown Facebook account with the name Khaled Talab. The user offered him a job in a Turkish delivery company that works in the West Bank. In the beginning, Zid was asked to deliver large sums of money worth thousands of shekels between various areas in the West Bank like Bethlehem, Ramallah and Hebron, but Zid didn’t know that this was Hamas money.
The Shin Bet investigation revealed that some of the money got to the recruits through digital currency merchants who were also tricked by Hamas.
At the second stage, when the tasks became more “suspicious,” Talab posed himself as someone who works for Palestinian politician Mouhamad Dahlan and sent Zid to purchase weapons including an M-16, an M4, two pistols and ammunition.
This year, we want to do more to bless Israel and the Jewish people.
We know that as we bless Israel this year, God will bless us, just as He promised in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Now is the time to bless Israel and the Jewish people.
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