Cellphones put to 'unnerving' use in Gaza

JERUSALEM -- To the suicide vest, the rocket and the battering ram, those longtime staples of conflict in the Middle East, add the cellphone.

Both sides in the Gaza war have employed cellphones as a form of psychological warfare, among other purposes — part of a trend toward using new media in a century-old conflict.

Hagar Mizrachi, a 25-year-old Israeli, recently received a text message that said rocket attacks on all of Israel's cities were imminent. The message was signed "Hamas" and the sender name was listed as "Qassam.hamm," he said. Qassams are rockets that Hamas militants have been firing from Gaza into southern Israel. "It's unnerving to receive something like that," said Mizrachi, an editor at an online news service. "It feels like they've invaded you."

Yaniv Levyatan, a psychological warfare expert at the University of Haifa, said cellphones are a natural tool since soldiers and militants are generally young and have grown up using them. Israel and Gaza are both small, densely populated areas blanketed by wireless service, making the phones' use even more effective, he said.

Levyatan said the messages from Hamas to Israeli cellphones were generally crude and not targeted very well. "The Hebrew was terrible," he said.

Palestinian phone users report receiving calls on both cellphones and land lines, encouraging them to turn in Hamas militants or warning them their home is about to be bombed, said Amman Aker, head of the Palestinian mobile phone company Jawwal, which operates in Gaza.

"We can't do anything about it," Aker said. He said the calls come in from international carriers and cannot be traced or blocked.

Israeli officials say they are doing Palestinians a service by advising them of impending attacks so civilians can get out of a building.

"We have to do what we can to warn civilians," said Maj. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli military spokesman. Dallal declined to discuss how the Israeli military obtains cellphone numbers in Gaza. Land line phone numbers here are generally available in phone books.