Group offers $1 million reward to identify Israeli agents

Hamas has offered a $1 million (Dh3.7m) reward for information about the Israeli special force troops who led a botched mission into the Gaza Strip in November.

Hamas said the Israeli raid on November 11 was part of a plan to plant spying devices on its communications network. Israel has imposed partial censorship on its media about the subject.

The undercover soldiers were seen near the city of Khan Younis. One Israeli officer and several Hamas members were killed.

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, said 15 members of an elite Israeli military unit travelled through Gaza using cars disguised as vehicles belonging to a local charity.

Mr Obeida said their goal was to set up a system to eavesdrop on Hamas’s communications network. He also showed video footage of what he said was the soldiers in action.

Hamas captured equipment used by the group, promising $1m to anyone who supplied the group with information about the operation.

The group said last week that it has arrested 45 Gazan collaborators with Israel after the Khan Yunis incident.

Hamas has published photographs of eight people and two vehicles it said were linked to the operation, prompting the Israeli army censor to appeal to the public and media not to republish the images.

The incident has prompted Hamas to vow revenge for the raid, which sparked the deadliest flare-up between the two sides since a war in 2014.

A November 13 ceasefire, which was brokered by Egypt, ended the fighting that had raised fears of another war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Israel says the measure is necessary to isolate Hamas and stop it obtaining weapons, but critics say it amounts to collective punishment of the territory’s two million residents.