Terrorists released in previous hostage deals were especially warned, as were those who took part in the Oct. 7 massacre.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Fearing Israeli assassinations, Hamas is providing safety instructions to its operatives, Israel Hayom reported Wednesday.
The terror group’s internal security department has identified what it called a “significant escalation by the IDF” to target former Israeli prisoners — especially men exchanged for hostages in past cease-fire deals and those who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion and murder spree in Israel that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, the report said.
The department released a video on its Al-Hares platform, set to martial music, showing a masked man walking along an empty dirt road and then sitting inside a house and using his cell phone to write or scan messages, with a red X marking those actions.
The implicit warning was that Israel can track them electronically if they use social media or make phone calls.
The video also advised operatives not to carry weapons openly, showing the man placing a handgun and several bullet clips into a black plastic bag before leaving a room.
This precaution would make them less of an obvious target to soldiers on the ground or aerial surveillance.
The actor then cleared the room of weapons, scattered a few prayer rugs and left the hideout looking abandoned — a step meant to prevent Israel from gleaning useful intelligence if the location were found.
The IDF has gained massive amounts of intelligence during the war from computers, notebooks, and even ordinary objects left behind in tunnels throughout Gaza after Hamas fighters fled Israeli incursions.
Meanwhile, in light of Israel’s recent warning that top terrorist figures living abroad are no longer safe, political leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups have begun taking stricter security precautions according to the London-based pan-Arab news outlet, Al-Araby al-Jadeed.
A Hamas source told the newspaper that the group had received warnings from several countries where members of its political bureau are located, and had called for tougher safeguards.
He said Turkey had recently increased security for senior Hamas leaders living there.
Al-Araby also cited an Egyptian source who said that his country had warned Israel against acting against Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Ziad al-Nahala, who currently resides in Cairo.
Members of PIJ also took part in the Oct. 7 slaughter of 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 Israelis and foreign nationals.
The IDF has killed numerous PIJ commanders and fighters in Gaza during the war, including former Israeli prisoners who rejoined the terror group after their release.
The group published a psychological warfare video last month of one hostage it is holding, Rom Braslavski, lying on the ground looking emaciated and in pain as he begged for his freedom.
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