Arab Bedouins suspected to have aided Hamas: Israeli security services

Israeli security services suspect that Hamas may have been aided by Arab Bedouins during the eight-day battle between Gaza and Israel, according to the Hebrew daily Ma’ariv as quoted by the Saudi Gazette.

According to the report, Arab Bedouins may have assisted Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements of Israel’s military movement in the Gaza Strip. It added that they also reported on the location of missiles that had fallen there by entering prohibited Israeli military areas.

A paratroop patrol said they chased trespassers in the Lachish area, who fled in a van after Israeli military fired warning shots, according to Ma’arv.

Many others who attempted to enter the prohibited military areas were arrested and turned over to police as well as security agencies, an Israeli army spokesperson told the daily.

Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza waged an eight-day firefight earlier this month in which at least 166 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and six Israelis, including four civilians, were killed.

The conflict, which saw Israel launch a wave of air strikes as Gaza militants fired volleys of rockets, threatened to erupt into a full-scale ground war before a U.S. and Egyptian brokered ceasefire took effect last week.