Gaza widow offers insight into world of spies

[oberliner]

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The 48-year-old Palestinian woman’s husband was shot to death in 2012 by militants in the Gaza Strip for spying for Israel. A mother of seven, she herself was jailed by Gaza’s Hamas rulers for aiding and abetting a spy — her husband.

The widow’s account to The Associated Press gave a rare look into the secret espionage side of the war between Israel and the Hamas militant group.

According to her, Israeli security agents took advantage of her late husband’s financial troubles a decade ago, luring him into collaborating by offering him a permit to work in Israel. She was later recruited when she was allowed to take one of their children to Israel for medical treatment.

“Our life was hell. We were scared,” she said of their years feeding Israel information. “I used to look over my shoulder when I am out in the market, get scared when I see a police car.” The woman, who was released in December, spoke on condition of anonymity because Hamas does not allow freed collaborators to talk to the press.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/gaza-widow-offers-insight-into-world-of-spies/2014/09/17/8a005f60-3e2d-11e4-a430-b82a3e67b762_story.html

[DanTex]

1. Coercing civilians to become informants is one of the many war crimes committed by Israel.

Among the many practices is blackmailing people by threatening to reveal their sexual orientation. This is a clear-cut war crime. I wonder if any of the usual suspects will show up here to denounce it?

No physical or moral coercion shall be exercised against protected persons, in particular to obtain information from them or from third parties.

https://www.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/Article.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=D87EA8F4896F4CE1C12563CD0051BC20

[oberliner]

2. Killing suspected collaborators without a trial is one of the many war crimes committed by Hamas

Literally just taken out and shot in some cases.

[DanTex]

3. I condemn both. How about you?

[oberliner]

5. Absolutely

Under the circumstances you describe, i.e. threats and such.

However, offering money or jobs or some other benefit for Palestinians who are willing to help Israel defeat Hamas is another story.

Do you object to the US trying to recruit potential spies within terrorist groups such as AQ?

[DanTex]

6. Offering money and blackmail are different, I agree.

There's also a difference between recruiting people who are part of terrorist groups and blackmailing civilians who want nothing to do with terrorism.

[oberliner]

7. I agree

Good to have found common ground.

[azurnoir]

4. HRW condemned the executions

Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip should urgently act to stop executions of Palestinians accused of providing information to the Israeli military and appropriately punish those behind the executions, Human Rights Watch said today. News reports said unidentified gunmen believed to be acting on instructions from Hamas executed three people on August 21, 2014, 18 people on August 22, and four people on August 23.

Hamas officials told journalists that local courts had tried and sentenced some of the men to death for “collaborating with the enemy” but gave no details and did not release their names, ostensibly to protect their families. Gunmen carried out executions in an empty park and in a public square in Gaza City, and near a mosque in Jabalya, not at the Interior Ministry location where local regulations authorize carrying out judicial executions.

“Amid all the carnage in Gaza, it’s abhorrent that Hamas officials are adding to it by permitting, if not ordering, the summary execution of Palestinians deemed to be collaborators,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Hamas authorities need to stop these extrajudicial killings.”

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/08/25/gaza-halt-executions