A NEW STUDY SHEDS light on the little-studied topic of counterintelligence operations launched against Israel by the Islamic Resistance Movement, better known as Hamas.
Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist and
nationalist organization with a 35-year history, which has controlled
the Gaza Strip since 2007. As is typically the case with Middle Eastern
non-state actors, Hamas is a complex umbrella organization that combines
social-service and administrative functions with armed elements. The
latter include internal policing components and a full-time military
wing, as well as reserve armed forces.
Although much research has focused on
Hamas’ military and non-military components, the organization’s
intelligence functions remain under-studied. For this reason, a new
article that assesses Hamas’ double-agent operations against Israeli
intelligence deserves attention. The article
is titled “An Asymmetric Doubling”: A Nonstate Actor Using the Method
of Doubling Sources —Hamas against Israeli Intelligence”, and was
authored by Netanel Flamer, a lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at
Bar-Ilan University and postdoctoral fellow at Tufts University’s
Fletcher School. It was published last week by the International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence.
In his article, Flamer explains the
usefulness of double-agent operations for non-state actors engaged in
asymmetric conflicts against opponents with superior resources.
Non-state actors tend to place tremendous value in double-agent
operations, because they offer them the opportunity to “generate
achievements of the greatest impact using the most efficient means”.
They can do so despite the relative poverty of their resources, as
compared to their adversaries. These types of operations employ human
intelligence (HUMINT) sources, who work with two opposing intelligence
services, only one of which is privy to their dual role. Such sources
are known in intelligence parlance as “double agents”.
Hamas’ Early Counterintelligence Efforts
Interestingly, Hamas’ first
counterintelligence outfit preceded its own establishment. Upon its
founding in 1987, at the peak of the First Intifada, Hamas was
immediately able to rely on al-Majd, a counterintelligence apparatus
that had been established a year earlier by Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad
Yassin. The mission of al-Majd was to uncover suspected Israeli
collaborators among Palestinian communities in the Gaza Strip and the
West Bank. The organization was also known for deploying varying levels
of torture against suspected collaborators, or against their relatives.
By the early 1990s, al-Majd was in a
position to launch a number of confirmed counterintelligence operations.
A notable early case is that of Maher Abu Srur, a Hamas member who had
been recruited by the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service. At
the culmination of this double-agent operation, Srur actually murdered
his Israeli handler at a Shin Bet safe house in Jerusalem. According to
Flamer, al-Majd is known to have launched several other double-agent
operations against the Shin Bet, with varying levels of success.
Importantly, it often is difficult to determine whether al-Majd double
agents were deployed after they were first recruited by the Shin Bet, or
whether they were originally deployed by al-Majd as “dangles”.
Increasing Professionalization in the 2000s
After 2007, when Hamas assumed control of
the Gaza Strip, the organization entered a period of
institutionalization and increased coordination among its various
elements. Cooperation between its military and intelligence wings was
also enhanced. In June of 2007, al-Majd was renamed Internal Security
Force (ISF) and established units throughout the Gaza Strip. Since that
time, the ISF has operated as the counterintelligence service of the
Hamas regime in the territories under its control, as well as beyond.
Flamer explains that the ISF
institutionalized counterintelligence processes throughout the Gaza
Strip. This enabled it to launch increasingly sophisticated operations
—including deception operations— against the Shin Bet and the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF). Its double-agent operations, in particular, became
more complex and durable: while double-agent operations by the al-Majd
lasted a few days or weeks, ISF operations have been known to last as
many as two years.
The author argues that the ISF’s
increased professionalization has enabled Hamas to gain direct access to
the Shin Bet’s operational core, and thus obtain high-quality
intelligence on its main adversary. Such intelligence includes details
about the Shin Bet’s methods of recruitment, as well as handling, of
agents. Additionally, the ISF has gained intelligence about the Shin
Bet’s agent communications systems and has even managed to bust Shin Bet
agent networks in the Gaza Strip, as well as further afield.
Additionally, the militant group has used double-agent operations to
misdirect Israeli intelligence activities and protect its assets, while
at the same time inflicting physical damage on Israel’s security
networks. In turn, such operational successes have, at times, damaged
Israel morale and permitted Hamas to “score points in the propaganda
wars” between the Jewish state and the Palestinians.
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