Gaza City – “The purpose of the IDF’s secret operation in the Gaza Strip was to plant listening devices in Gaza,” this according to senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya.
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During an interview on Sunday with Hamas television network Al-Aqsa, whose offices were bombed during last week’s flare up, al-Hayya said that the IDF unit that operated in the Gaza Strip, which was exposed last Sunday night, attempted to infiltrate Hamas defense in an attempt to plant what appeared to be “bugs, but Palestinian resistance observance and alertness foiled their plans.”
Al-Hayya went on to say that these actions constituted “a clear violation of the cease-fire understanding [following the 2014 Gaza War].”
During the interview with Al-Aqsa, Al-Hayya added that it would not be easy to break into the “security zone” in Gaza and said the world must understand that Israel “is the source of evil, insecurity and lack of tranquility in the region.”
He added that “the [Egyptian and UN] mediators of the ceasefire knew” that it was Israel who “violated the understanding, and from the beginning, Israel to stop the escalation because it was the one who initiated the crime.”
Last Sunday night, an IDF special Unit, which was discovered in Gaza, was caught up in a fire fight with Hamas operatives during what is believed to be a botched reconnaissance mission in the Strip. A Druze IDF officer, Lt.-Col. M, was killed during the firefight, while a second officer was moderately wounded.
Six Hamas operatives, as well as a senior commander, were killed during the firefight.
The botched operation led to a major escalation between Israel and Hamas in which 460 rockets were shot into southern Israel, while IDF hit 160 targets across the Strip in retaliation to the rocket fire.