Special to WorldTribune.com

JERUSALEM — Israel’s intelligence community has determined that Hamas formed a messenger service to communicate with senior members imprisoned in the Jewish state.

The Israel Security Agency said Hamas co-opted Israeli attorneys and others to maintain contact with jailed senior operatives.

ISA concluded that Hamas paid Israeli Arabs up to $200 per visit to the jailed agents.

“This method allowed Hamas to operate as usual, even as senior operatives were serving jail sentences,” an official said.

On April 2, ISA released details of the Hamas messenger service, said to have begun operations in 2011. The agency, responsible for domestic intelligence, said it arrested six attorneys from Jerusalem in March for working with Hamas and the Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad.

Officials said ISA launched the investigation after the agency was informed of a law office opened in late 2013 that paid attorneys to visit Hamas detainees. The attorneys were said to have brought written messages from Hamas military commanders in the Gaza Strip and ordered to record the
answers of the prisoners.

Hamas was said to have sought information on finances, prison activities as well as support for the organization. Officials said the contacts were intensified during Hamas elections in 2012 as well as negotiations for a massive prisoner exchange in 2011.

In all, the law office in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, raided
in early 2014, relayed nearly 1 million shekel or $290,000, to Hamas,
officials said. The law office was operated by two brothers, who denied the
allegations.

Officials said Hamas also sought expertise from detainees on improvised
explosive devices. They said Hamas also relayed instructions on suspected
collaborators with Israel.

  Hamas running messenger service to jailed operatives in Israel, Islamic Jihad, Israel Security Agency, Issawiya