Remains of the vehicle used by the force after it was bombed by the IAF
Photo: Reuters
British report: Exposed IDF force posed as medical workers
The Independent reports Israeli Special Forces in the botched raid in Gaza used 'detailed but fake' IDs of real Gazans and claimed they were transporting patients back to their homes, but their accents arouse suspicions.
The Israeli Special Forces involved in a recent botched Gaza Strip raid had posed as medical personnel from one of the aid groups operating in the coastal enclave, British newspaper The Independent reported Sunday.
The operation saw an IDF officer killed and another wounded, leading to a massive wave of rocket fire on southern Israeli communities. Seven Palestinians were also killed when the November 11 operation went wrong, and the IDF unit was forced to call in air support to help them flee.
An Independent journalist who went into the Gaza Strip obtained new information by interviewing Hamas members as well as residents living in the Khan Yunis area, where the incident had taken place.
Remains of the vehicle used by the force after it was bombed by the IAF (Photo: Reuters)
Furthermore, the Israeli troops "were posing as NGO workers, there were women in the car as well. They used this to justify why they were stealing into Gaza and had a story prepared should they be questioned," Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told The Independent.
Remains of the vehicle used by the force after it was bombed by the IAF
Another Hamas official, who was not identified in the report, said the Israelis "told the fighters at the checkpoint that they were delivering patients back from clinics to their homes and had a wheelchair in the back of the van. They presented their ID cars but the (fighters) manning the checkpoint were suspicious as their accents and voices did not match the areas where they said they were from."
The Israeli forces were reportedly held at the checkpoint until the Hamas commander in Khan Yunis, Nour Baraka, was called to the scene and decided to take them in for questioning at a Hamas facility. It was then, according to the report, that the IDF troops opened fire.
Local residents told The Independent that Baraka knew the family of the woman the force claimed to have come to aid. He called the family and confirmed she had already passed away.
A Hamas official told the British paper the Israeli force was in Gaza to replace listening and surveillance devices that had been laid before.
