Published today (updated) 21/07/2010 12:59

Gaza – Ma'an –

The Gaza government's Interior Ministry accused Israel's intelligence services Wednesday of sending agents on humanitarian aid convoys to the Strip.

Ministry official Khaled Issa said "[Mossad] agents were discovered collecting information on the situation in Gaza and writing reports on the tiniest detail," while alleging they were participating on aid convoys.

The official's remarks were made during a conference for employees with Gaza's Communication Ministry and members of the National Campaign Against Communicating with the Enemy.

The campaign was launched several months ago, he said, and has achieved "positive results reducing the number of spies for the Israeli intelligence," which he said had increased over the last three years.

Issa added that Israel had lost communication with its informants and collaborators since withdrawing from Gaza in 2005, and the Hamas takeover in 2007, which ended security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel in the Strip.

He said Israel was attempting to recruit collaborators in Gaza via the Internet by using social networking sites such as Facebook, messengers, and mobile phone technology, as efforts to secure the whereabouts of captured soldier Gilad Shalit have failed.

The official called on Gaza residents "not to yield" to suspicious phone calls allegedly from Mossad asking young Palestinian men to help them in return for money.

In June, the Gaza government announced it would be providing amnesty to collaborators over a one-month period if they turned themselves in to security forces, after declaring a campaign against informants and spies over the summer.