GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — More than 60 Palestinian, foreign and Israeli journalists who work with foreign media outlets in Israel and Jerusalem received threatening text messages on their Israeli mobiles on Saturday night, March 22. The messages were in both Arabic and English, and included the name of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement.

Josef Federman, news editor at The Associated Press' Jerusalem bureau, said that at about 8 p.m. Saturday he received four text messages in Hebrew and English on his Israeli number which contained threats.

Speaking to Al-Monitor by phone, Federman said that the four messages contained various statements, including: "In the coming war, the Palestinian territories will be recovered," "Hamas has promised to retaliate, and there will be retaliation," and "the al-Qassam [brigades] have chosen you to be the next Shalit … get ready." He noted that the sender did not appear on the phone as a number, but rather was registered as "Kill you."

Federman explained that, at first, he felt concerned about these strange messages. He then contacted his colleagues from the AP bureau and discovered that they had received the same messages, so he felt that it might be some kind of spam.