”A spy Dolphin” that is what Hamas fighters in Gaza have called it. A Dolphin alleged to have been caught by the Hamas group spying for Israelis in Gaza
The group claimes that it has seized a Dolphin that was spying for Israel off the coast of Gaza.
Naval commandos found several “spying devices and surveillance cameras” strapped to the mammal, according to Safa, a Palestinian news agency that is close to Hamas.
“It is likely that the dolphin was important for photographing and spying on the frogmen [Palestinian divers whom Israel fears are allegedly planning on infiltrating the country to commit an attack],” the group said in a statement.
It is not known what has happened to the Dolphin, and no photographs have been released to support the claim.
The dolphin joins a long list of animals allegedly pressed into service by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, according to a number of Arab governments.
In one such example, vultures were detained in both Saudi Arabia and Sudan on suspicion of espionage. Israel said the birds were tagged with GPS chips and Hebrew leg bracelets as part of a university program to track their migration.
A fisherman in Egypt meanwhile, caught a stork two years ago when he noticed a suspicious metal object strapped to its back and suspected it was a spy. In 2013, Egyptian police nabbed a bird outside of Cairo with microfilm supposedly tied to its leg. The bird was ultimately cleared of all charges and released.
Some claims have been more outlandish still. In 2010, Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha, the governor of South Sinai, accused Mossad of using remote-control sharks to attack tourists and jeopardise the country.
Dolphins, the subject of the latest scare, are among the smartest members of the animal kingdom and the US military has used them as naval minesweepers in the past.
There is little evidence that Israel has deployed them, though it does maintain a fleet of German-built submarines known as Dolphins.Mossad has long been considered the Middle East’s most effective intelligence service, and has been the subject of endless bizarre rumours.
A popular story in the 1990s accused the agency of distributing a tainted chewing gum that gave Palestinian women irrepressible sexual appetites while also sterilising them.
An Iranian newspaper reported in 2008 that a pigeon was found near the Natanz nuclear facility with “invisible strings”. Authorities did not, crucially, explain how they managed to see the invisible threads.
