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Shin Bet uncovers extensive Hamas network in Hebron

Covert women transferred messages, instructions and finances to Hamas operatives, in addition to disseminating online information, organizing at mosques and helping prisoners’ families.

Hamas terrorists in Gaza City, March, 25, 2017. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.
Hamas terrorists in Gaza City, March, 25, 2017. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.

Along with the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police, Israel’s principal security service, the Shin Bet, recently discovered an extensive Hamas network in Hebron, which included several women covertly acting on behalf of Hamas command centers in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere.

Led by senior Hamas operatives and former prisoners Nazar Shehada and Faris Abu Serah, the terrorist network transferred messages, instructions and finances to Hamas operatives, in addition to disseminating online information, organizing at mosques and helping prisoners’ families, according to the Shin Bet.

The network’s central committee was led by Dina Karmi, whose husband, Nashaat Karmi, killed four civilians in a 2010 attack before being killed by Israeli security forces.

Indictments were soon filed in Judea Military Court against Karmi, Serah and other network members.

“Exposure of the network proves again that Hamas command centers abroad and in the Gaza Strip, are utilizing all means at their disposal, including the use of women, to direct Hamas operations in Judea and Samaria,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.

The command centers, it said, “are working tirelessly to promote Hamas operations in Judea and Samaria and, to this end, are recruiting couriers for contact between Judea and Samaria and abroad, in order to transfer funds for terrorism and messages for field operatives.”

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