Inside Stasi-like secret police run by ‘Gaza’s Bin Laden’ to quash dissent & his chilling plans for Turkey terror base

HAMAS terror chief Yahya Sinwar used a secret police force in Gaza to spy on Palestinians, journalists and those who opposed his regime.

Sinwar, dubbed Gaza’s “Bin Laden”, oversaw the Stasi-like units efforts to squash dissent in the Strip and its plans for a terror base abroad.

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Palestinians protest against Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip[/caption]

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Palestinian civilians scramble through rubble after an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip[/caption]

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Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas, is still hiding from Israeli forces[/caption]

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After more than six months of war in Gaza, the Strip has been all but destroyed[/caption]

A dense network of informants included some who even reported their neighbours to the terror group’s agents, leaked Hamas documents have revealed.

The trove of internal files, seen by The New York Times, details the twisted reach of the General Security Service secret police inside Gaza.

Ordinary Palestinians were blacklisted for attending protests against the terrorist regime, or for publicly criticising the group.

The “Stasi” like group even followed people to work out if they were pursuing romantic relationships outside of marriage.

Members of the press and those suspected of behaving immorally were followed closely while GSS agents would scour social media for criticism.

Political opponents would be defamed and protests were seen as threats that needed to be cut out.

Israeli military officials said the files included information on more than 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

They believe Yahya Sinwar oversaw the group personally, and showed the New York Times a 62-slide presentation on its activity which they believe was drawn up for him.

Former Israeli intelligence officer Michael Milshtein said: “This General Security Service is just like the Stasi of East Germany.

“You always have an eye on the street.”

One document titled “Founding a base in Turkey”, seen by The Times, was found in the home of Hamza Abu Shanab – Yahya Sinwar’s chief of staff.

It exposed plans by the terror group to establish a security base outside of the Strip that could “carry out intelligence and military operations in the future”.

A three-year plan included “setting up many military cells and safe houses in many countries”.

Hamas would then “train the military cells” and pursue the “practical planning of sabotage and assassination” of Israeli intelligence officers and officials.

Details in the plan suggest the base would be set up in Turkey.

The GSS, according to a Palestinian familiar with Hamas inner workings, formed one of three key branches for the terror group’s organisation.

The others are Military Intelligence, focusing on Israel and the Internal Security Service, an arm of the Interior Ministry.

Made up of 856 people before war broke out after the October 7, the group stacked up a monthly expense of $120,000.

They relied more on censorship, intimidation and surveillance to squash dissent than physical violence.

It is unclear how, where or to what extent the group is operating today more than six months into the war.

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The Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas[/caption]

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Palestinians have experienced food shortages and blockades for years – but after more than six months of war with Israel are near starvation in the Strip[/caption]

Civilians in Gaza protest against blockades and life under Hamas, 2019Reuters

Bombardment from all sides

Since Hamas’ takeover in 2007, Israel has held a blockade around Gaza preventing the movement of people and of essential goods.

Humans rights groups have said the blockades amount to a war crime, enforcing collective punishment on innocent Palestinians for the crimes of Hamas.

It has led to the Strip being called an “open-air prison”, exacerbated in October last year when Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a “total blockade”.

They cut off food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity.

In October last year Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard warned that Israel should “lift its illegal 16-year blockade on the Gaza Strip”.

One journalist named in the exposed Hamas files, Ehab Fasfous, told The New York Times: “We’re facing bombardment by the occupation [Israel] and thuggery by the local authorities. [Hamas]”

Sinwar’s secret police force dubs the journalist as among “the major haters of the Hamas movement”.

Some of the slides exposed from the file recovery included information on the Gazan “We Want to Live” protests.

The movement, founded in 2019, opposed the Hamas regime and saw Palestinians rise up against the blocking of electricity, access to drinking water, food, education and freedom of speech.

While attacking opponents, the files said agents would use “a number of offensive and defensive media campaigns to confuse and influence adversaries by using private and exclusive information”.

Fasfous was stopped by two plain clothed agents on his way to a protest when they took his phone and found “suspicious” Israeli contacts.

He said they then sent flirtatious messages to a colleague – trying to trap him in a “moral violation”.

Israeli president Isaac Herzog has blamed Gazans for not rising up against Hamas before the October 7 attacks.

He said: “There’s an entire nation that is responsible.

“This rhetoric about civilians were not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up.”

But the leaked files reveal the extent of crackdowns in the Strip on anyone who tried to do so.

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Two little boys watch Israeli strikes east of Rafah on Monday[/caption]

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Hamas members on an Israeli tank near the Gaza border, October 7[/caption]