Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC) Jan 12

Hamas hides the casualties suffered by its operatives:
Hamas’s main online forum censors the publication of names
and photographs of operatives killed in Operation Cast Lead

On January 10, at 21:41 , all web surfers on Hamas’s PALDF forum (the movement’s main message board) received a message from a user nicknamed “Samed” (“He who stands firm”). He is one of the forum’s moderators (the user was said to be a muraqib, Arabic for “inspector”). The message said that according to the policy of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip (“the jihadist resistance”), it was forbidden to publish photographs, names, or details of those members of the resistance (i.e., terrorist organizations) killed or injured in the fighting until the end of the “Israeli aggression” in the Gaza Strip. The moderator said that any message violating those principles would be removed from the forum. He added that they were all “soldiers of the resistance” who should avoid providing assistance to the enemy (see Appendix for the complete message and its translation).

It is our assessment that such a policy is designed to achieve three goals:

a) to avoid undermining the morale of Hamas operatives as a result of the death of many terrorists during the IDF’s ground operations (according to IDF reports, more than 200 operatives were killed). With that in mind, and possibly owing to the difficulty of evacuating many bodies from the battlefield, it was reported that Hamas was not holding proper funerals for its fatalities.

b) to deliver to the Palestinian target audience (and to other target audiences worldwide) the message that Israel has no achievements in its ground operation and thus strengthen Hamas’s status and bargaining power when the fighting comes to an end.

c) to confirm (through Al-Jazeera and other media) the false propaganda message that Israel’s military operations are aimed against Gaza Strip residents and that only the civilian population is being hit by the IDF and is paying the price.

Yep.

Tags: Hamas, Israel, palestinian

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Hamas, Israel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.