Hamas monitored political activity, online posts, and apparently even love lives. Palestinians were stuck between an Israeli blockade and a repressive security force.

The Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has for years overseen a secret police force in Gaza that conducted surveillance on everyday Palestinians and built files on young people, journalists and those who questioned the government, according to intelligence officials and a trove of internal documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The unit, known as the General Security Service, relied on a network of Gaza informants, some of whom reported their own neighbors to the police. People landed in security files for attending protests or publicly criticizing Hamas. In some cases, the records suggest that the authorities followed people to determine if they were carrying on romantic relationships outside marriage.

Hamas has long run an oppressive system of governance in Gaza, and many Palestinians there know that security officials watch them closely. But a 62-slide presentation on the activities of the General Security Service, delivered only weeks before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, reveals the degree to which the largely unknown unit penetrated the lives of Palestinians.

. . .

Everyday Gazans were stuck — behind the wall of Israel’s crippling blockade and under the thumb and constant watch of a security force. That dilemma continues today, with the added threat of Israeli ground troops and airstrikes.

MBFC
Archive

    • @[email protected]English
      4•1 month ago

      You should read your links. This one is the same flaws source as the first, notice the founders name.

      Ed: and they tell you the margin of error is huge because of war (go figure) and specifically state it was taken in non combat zones, ie zones held by Israel… This isn’t hard maybe, your point is dumb move on.

      Despite the large representative sample, the margin of error for this poll is +/-4. The increase in the margin of error is due to the lack of precision regarding the number of residents who stayed in their homes, or in shelters, in the northern parts of the Gaza Strip which we did not sample.

        • @[email protected]English
          1•1 month ago

          All of them? Dunno about that, but the ones that specifically state they are inaccurate and biased you should probably take their word for it.

          Ed: also yes I do in fact I mentioned it. Ie. The oil was at isreali safe zones, how likely do you think expressing “fuck Israel” sentiment is going to be when everyone with a gun around you is Israeli.