Report: Hamas claims they arrested 45 Israeli collaborators in Gaza

Hamas claimed that some of the reported collaborators were recruited by Israel over the phone and social media.

By YVETTE J. DEANE
Palestinian Hamas militants attend the funeral of their comrades who were killed in an explosion, in the central Gaza Strip May 6, 2018 (photo credit: REUTERS/IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA)
Palestinian Hamas militants attend the funeral of their comrades who were killed in an explosion, in the central Gaza Strip May 6, 2018
(photo credit: REUTERS/IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA)
The Interior Ministry in Gaza issued a statement on Tuesday, saying that Hamas arrested 45 collaborators who were working with Israel, between the botched undercover mission that resulted in the death of Lieutenant Colonel M. and seven Hamas members in November and the new year.
Hamas claimed that some of the reported collaborators were recruited by Israel over the phone and social media. According to the report, Israel seduced some of these men with fake accounts of girls on Facebook. After Israeli agents started a conversation and they were able to blackmail the men, Israel then turned these Gazans into collaborators and informants.
One man arrested by Hamas said he was recruited to help dispel the Islamic State from Gaza.
In December, The Independent, a British newspaper, reported that the Israeli special forces operation's failure in early November was allegedly due to the fact that IDF soldiers were posing as NGO members and were then outed.