Hamas photos of Israeli force spark censor warning

GAZA/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Hamas published photos on Thursday of six men and two women who it said were involved in a botched Israeli undercover raid into the Gaza Strip this month and appealed for details about them, Reuters reported.

Israel's forces censor, without commenting on the credibility of Hamas's information, urged the media not to disseminate any details about the November 11 incident in which an Israeli colonel, a Hamas commander and six other Palestinian militants were killed. 

The armed wing of Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, called for information on the people in the photos as it continued an investigation into the botched Israeli mission, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Hamas also distributed images of two vehicles purportedly linked to the covert operation, but provided no further details on the identities of the people photographed.

Israel's forces censor issued a statement shortly afterwards calling on the public and news media not to distribute the photos or information relating to them.

"Hamas is attempting to understand and analyse the incident that occurred in Gaza on November 11 and any information, even if it seems harmless by those who distribute it, can endanger lives and put state security at risk," the statement said.

A botched Israeli special forces operation on November 11 in the Gaza Strip prompted Hamas to vow revenge and led to the deadliest escalation between the two sides since a 2014 war.

The clash that resulted from the blown operation killed seven Palestinians, including a local Hamas military commander, as well as an Israeli army officer.

Israel has provided few details on the operation, but said it was an intelligence-gathering mission, AFP said.

Gaza responded by firing some 460 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel, as well as an anti-tank missile that hit a bus Hamas says was being used by Israel’s army.

In all, some 27 Israelis were wounded, three of them severely.

A Palestinian labourer from the occupied West Bank was killed when a rocket hit a building in the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

Israel hit back with widespread air strikes in the Gaza Strip that saw seven Palestinians killed in 24 hours.

A November 13 ceasefire brokered by Egypt ended the fighting that had raised fears of a fourth war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since 2008.

Israeli law mandates that local and foreign media submit stories dealing with national security or the military to the censor before publication. In reality, reports on routine military activity are rarely submitted, and the censor is largely powerless to block social media posts, according to Reuters.