IbrahimMahmoud Jibril al-Hawajri: terrorist operative with a double identity, killed in Operation Pillar of Defense. Left: In a police uniform. Right: In a Popular Resistance Committees uniform(Hamas forum, November 20, 2012).
Overview
1. An examination of the names of 25 members of the internal security services in the Gaza Strip who were killed in Operation Pillar of Defense[1] shows the great extent of the phenomenon of security service members who have double identities. The examination showed that 25 security service members killed in Operation Pillar of Defense (about one quarter of all the casualties) were identified as terrorist operatives as well. Twenty-three belonged to Hamas' military-terrorist wing and two to the Popular Resistance Committees.
2. The findings, which correspond to the findings of Operation Cast Lead, again show that many terrorist operatives are also employed by the internal security services of the de-facto Hamas administration. In our assessment there are two main reasons: one is that it provides a means of financing the terrorist operatives in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the other military-terrorist wings in the Gaza Strip.[2] The other is that it keeps the security services loyal to Hamas and ensures their effectiveness.
3. Fathi Hamad, the interior minister of the Hamas administration, recently gave a speech at a ceremony for 25 members of the internal security services killed in Operation Pillar of Defense. He called for Israel to be gotten rid of, calling it a "cancer," and praised the strengthening of the security apparatus in the Gaza Strip. He admitted that the internal security services of the Hamas ministry of the interior collaborated with military wings of the various "combat factions" [i.e., the terrorist organizations] (Al-Aqsa TV, December 5, 2012).
4. The operatives with double identities were actively involved in military-terrorist activities against Israel both before and during Operation Pillar of Defense. Nevertheless, the human rights organizations customarily relate to them and to the internal security services as civilian in every respect and which provide services to civilians. The terrorist organizations regularly put the names of internal security service members killed by the IDF on their lists of civilian casualties to inflate the number of non-involved civilians killed. That was the approach adopted by the Goldstone Report which stated that the government of Israel did not provide evidence to contradict the claim that policemen in the Hamas police force were civilians, although the Report was willing to admit that an occasional member of the police force may have had contacts with "Palestinian armed groups."
5. This document has three appendices:
1) Appendix I: Members of the security services killed in Operation Pillar of Defense, all of whom had double identities.
2) Appendix II: Examples of security service members with double identities killed in Operation Cast Lead.
3) Appendix III: Additional examples of security service members with double identities killed in IDF strikes.
[1] According to a statement from the ministry of the interior of the de-facto Hamas administration on November 26, 2012, 25 members of the security services were killed, and the ministry issued a list of the names of 23 of them. We identified two additional operatives, whose names did not appear on the ministry of the interior's list, as also having double identities.
[2] In our assessment, money donated to the de-facto Hamas administration is transferred by the ministry of the interior to the military-terrorist wings of the various organizations for the upkeep of their operatives.
