GAZA CITY: Hamas yesterday claimed Palestinian Authority agents collaborated with Israel during the Gaza offensive, including using Google Earth to pinpoint targets in the territory.
“With the help of the Google Earth program, those groups prepared maps to localize mosques, institutions, tunnels or workshops,” said Abu Abdallah, a senior intelligence officer in the Hamas government which rules the Gaza Strip. The targets were then hit by the Israeli Air Force, he said at a news conference.
Abdallah said the information included plans of the home of the Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh as well as the location of tunnels and weapons caches.
Hamas officials showed videos of alleged confessions by men who said they were members of Fatah, the archrivals of Hamas and the main faction in the Palestinian Authority.
The PA has held sway only in the West Bank since forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas were ousted from Gaza in the violent Hamas takeover in June 2007.
“Officers and members of the Ramallah security services in Ramallah tasked their agents with tracking the movements of the resistance in Gaza,” the spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry said at the news conference, referring to the West Bank city where the PA has it headquarters. “This information was sent to Ramallah then transmitted to the enemy which hit targets on the basis of this information collected before and during the war,” Ihab Al-Ghossein added.
The 22-day Israeli offensive that ended on Jan. 18 caused massive devastation and killed more than 1,300 Palestinians.
A European Parliament delegation headed by its President Hans Gert Poettering toured Gaza yesterday to assess the damage caused by Israel’s war on the Hamas-run territory.
The group, made up of parliamentarians of various nationalities, traveled to Gaza City after crossing into the Palestinian territory from Egypt.
