Gazans drag the body of a suspected Israeli collaborator, November 2012. Photo: Youtube.

Ma’an reported late Wednesday:

Israeli forces on Wednesday afternoon detained nine Palestinians inside of Israel after the group attempted to cross the border east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Witnesses said a young man, two women, and six children were detained after sneaking into Israel from al-Faraheen village.

Palestinian security forces were present at the scene after the incident, witnesses added.

This is unusual. Sometimes Gazans try to sneak into Israel for work, sometimes for terror attacks, but a large group of mostly women and children trying to enter Israel is, as far as I know, unprecedented.

Palestine Press Agency, a pro-Fatah site, claims that there were actually two families who crossed – and that they were families of spies for Israel.

It names the heads of the two households, Basil Karnafeh and Jamil Nasir, along with nine other family members, saying that this was coordinated with Israel to save them after they had acted as spies.

This sounds plausible.

The news item goes on to claim that most “collaborators” who manage to get to Israel end up living in squalor that is far worse than Gaza, abandoned by their Israeli overlords, and that Israel only pretends to help them in order to help the morale of the spies left behind in Gaza.