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Hamas admits member spied and defected to Israel

In interview on a Hezbollah TV station, Moussa Abu Marzouk admits that one of its terrorists escaped to Israel.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

A senior Hamas official confirmed reports in Arab and Israeli media that a member of the terror group had defected from Gaza to Israel, the news site Arab48 reported Friday.

Interviewed by the Lebanese pro-Hezbollah television station Al-Mayadeen, Moussa Abu Marzouk admitted that a Hamas member had escaped Gaza to Israel.

Calling the defector a “collaborator,” Abu Marzouq said the man did “not have any maps or information about the Hamas maritime force.”

Abu Marzouk said the report that the Hamas commander defected with intelligence information was “a lie and fraud, and we hope the media, especially the Arab media, will investigate the accuracy and not turn into the Hebrew media,” he told Al-Mayadeen.

Last weekend the Arabic news site Amad reported the the escaped Hamas official was the head of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades’ naval commando unit. Amad reported that the commander left the Gaza Strip in an Israeli boat, carrying classified information and a laptop computer.

Following the reports, Hamas’ internal security services arrested several high-ranking Hamas members in a bid to find accomplices.

The senior Hamas commander apparently defected after being exposed as a spy for the Jewish state. Al-Arabiya reported earlier this week the man brought with him a treasure trove of information that provided intelligence on the movements of the highest echelon of the terrorist group and mapped out the locations of missile storage sites, training bases, and hiding places of senior Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip.

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The commander’s escape on an Israeli naval vessel set off a swift chain of events within the terror organization. Several military and political officials have moved out of their homes, and a number of senior security personnel have been fired.

The getaway coincided with a wave of arrests of other members of the al-Qassam Brigades on charges of espionage for Israel. One name that has already been revealed is that of Mahmoud Amar Abu Ajawa, whom Palestinian sources cited in Al-Arabiya as being responsible for “everything related to technical matters for the Qassam Brigades.”