Hamas Officials In Gaza Ordered To Stop Using Cellphones To Anticipate Israeli Tracking

Illustration of the militant group Hamas. (Wikimedia Commons/Mujahideen Muqadas)

JAKARTA - Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip, Palestine were instructed by senior officials to stop using cell phones (Ponsels), in order to avoid tracking by Israel, Saudi Arabian news agency Asharq Al-Awsat reported.

The order comes after Israel warned it would return to a " fierce battle" in the Gaza Strip if Hamas did not release a number of hostages on Saturday despite the exact number Israel hopes to be released unclear.

Citing Hamas sources, an order for Hamas officials to stop using their phones within the Gaza Strip, was prepared before the Palestinian militant group said it would delay the release of the hostages by the weekend, but was only expected to be given to officers by the end of the first phase of the ceasefire, reported by The Times of Israel on February 12.

However, the directive was put forward amid preparations by Israel and Hamas for a possible deal to fail sooner than expected.

According to the report, the main reason Hamas didn't want its senior officials to use cell phones was, fearing Israel would track down senior commanders and kill them.

Last year, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies were detonated remotely in Lebanon and Syria on September 16-17.

The pager explosion came after nearly a year of relentless rocket and drone attacks against Israel by the militant group Hezbollah, which began a day after the Hamas-Israeli conflict broke out in Gaza, causing the evacuation of some 60,000 residents from northern Israeli cities on the border with Lebanon.

Israel has not publicly stated responsibility for the attack targeting Hezbollah which caused pagers and walkie-talkies to explode in two waves, killing at least 39 people.

Later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted Israel was behind the attack in a report.

"Nasrallah's Hezbollah services and assassinations were carried out despite opposition from senior officials at defense agencies and those responsible for the attack on political echelons," said PM Netanyahu.

Lebanon said nearly 3,000 others were injured in the attack. The number of victims did not differentiate between civilians and members of the terror group. Among the injured was Iran's Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani.

A Hezbollah official told Reuters a week later the attack paralyzed 1,500 Hezbollah militants from their injuries, with many being blind or breaking their hands.