Hamas offers $1 million for identities of Israeli special ops in November raid; Publish video on the raid
The undercover troops were exposed, and the ensuing firefight claimed the lives of an IDF army officer and 7 Palestinian militants, including a local commander from Hamas's military wing.
The Hamas also offered a $1 million reward for information that would lead to the identities of the special forces team.
The November 11 operation, details of which the Israeli military has kept largely under gag order, turned deadly when the undercover soldiers were spotted near Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
On Saturday, Hamas said it completed a full investigation into the Israeli raid but released few new details.
According to the organization, the Israeli special forces team prepared for the operation for at least 10 months and entered the Gaza Strip on several occasions in the lead up to it. It said the team, made up of 15 people, some of whom participated in the operation, possessed falsified documents and posed as employees of an aid agency.
Hamas alleged that the purpose of the operation was to set up a spy network and plant communications equipment, already smuggled in through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and that the group was able to salvage valuable information from the equipment.
The video, aired on Hamas TV and by the Hamas-affiliated news agency Shehab, is made up of surveillance footage and animated reenactment of the operation. In a series of shots, two commercial vehicles Hamas says was used by the Israeli team can be seen driving around Khan Younis. The footage also allegedly shows two Israeli special forces, a man and a woman, in what appears to be a grocery store.
At a certain point, the vehicles arouse the suspicion of a Hamas commander and he begins to follow the vans, after which the teams are stopped and questioned.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Abu Obaida, the spokesperson of Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said the group was offering a pardon to any possible "collaborators" who assisted the Israeli teams and would help in identifying them. He said Hamas would also offer $1 million for information about the Israeli special forces.
Hamas also released photos of the weapons and other equipment, including saws, allegedly seized from the Israeli teams.
In recent months, Hamas arrested dozens of Palestinians it suspected of aiding the Israeli team. Earlier this month, the group said it apprehended "45 agents after the security incident east of Khan Younis last November and they are under investigation."
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The incident prompted Hamas to vow revenge and led to the deadliest escalation between the two sides since the 2014 war. Gaza fired some 470 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel, as well as an anti-tank missile that hit an IDF bus. Nearly 30 were wounded in Israel by rockets, 3 of them severely. A Palestinian laborer from the West Bank was killed when a rocket fired from Gaza hit a building in the Israeli town of Ashkelon.
Israel hit back with widespread airstrikes in the Gaza Strip that saw 7 Palestinians killed in 24 hours.
Photos: Images taken from the Hamas video published today; Palestinians stand next to the remains of the car used by Israeli special forces during the operation in Gaza, which was was later destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on November 12; Pistols used by the Israeli special forces, which were obtained by Hamas; Nur Barake, the Hamas commander killed during the fire fight with the Israeli special force inside Gaza, November 12th