Hebrew channel: chips implanted by the occupation for spying were used by the resistance to contact prisoners’ families

Israel’s Channel 15, citing a security source, said the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, contacted families of the captives on the day of their release using Israeli SIM cards.

The channel said those SIM cards had been placed in specific locations in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army to gather information about the Israeli captives, but a number of the cards were activated a few hours before the handover and families received phone calls from them.

Last Monday, the Al-Qassam Brigades allowed several Israeli captives in their custody to make video calls with relatives, ahead of their release today, Monday, under the exchange deal.

Footage broadcast by Hebrew-language media showed part of the video calls, with the captives appearing alongside members of the Shadow Unit responsible for protecting prisoners within the Al-Qassam Brigades.

In one of the videos, the mother of captive Matan Angrist is seen speaking to her son. Matan’s mother is a prominent leader of the prisoners’ families’ movement that has been pressing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to end the war over the past two years.

On Monday, the Al-Qassam Brigades released seven of the 20 Israeli captives who are to be freed today, in exchange for the release by Israeli forces of about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including roughly 200 serving long sentences.