Special to WorldTribune.com

GAZA CITY — The Hamas regime has assigned its counter-intelligence crackdown to the Interior Ministry.

Officials said Israel was the leading element in recruiting and handling spies in the Gaza Strip.

The Internal Security Force has over the last two years became the lead agency for the Hamas Interior Ministry in countering dissent, particularly from the opposition Fatah movement.

“There is an improvement and development in the performance and tools at our disposal to reach the spies,” ISF director-general Maj. Gen. Salah Eddin Abu Sharekh said.

Abu Sharekh did not detail attempts by Egypt to spy on the Gaza Strip. Over the last three months, the Egyptian military has been conducting air and other reconnaissance operations amid charges that Hamas was helping the revolt in the Sinai Peninsula.

In a briefing on Oct. 8, ISF reviewed the Hamas counter-intelligence operation.

“The occupation spares no effort in using all means to recruit spies,” Abu Sharekh, referring to Israel, said. “And we are still in a long conflict with the occupation in this file.”

Officials said the crackdown on foreign espionage took place in 2013 in wake of the eight-day war with Israel. During the November 2012 war, Hamas lost several leading officials, including military chief Ahmed Jabari.

Hamas had offered the prospect of amnesty to those involved with Israel’s intelligence community. Officials said ISF was forming programs in schools for students to combat foreign espionage. They also played down foreign espionage operations over the last few months amid intensified Hamas precautions in recruitment, communications and operations.

“It is very limited among the Palestinian people, and did not develop into a phenomenon as some try to portray,” Abu Sharekh said.

  Ahmed Jabari, Gaza Strip, Hamas and Egypt, Intelligence war: Gaza is the hot zone for spies from Israel, Internal Security Forces, Maj. Gen. Salah Eddin Abu Sharekh