As the war in Palestine escalates, the Israeli authorities have relied on an intensive surveillance apparatus which was expanded, refined, and normalized during the COVID-19 pandemic. Israel’s security agency, the Shin Bet or Shabak, is working alongside its Israeli police forces to arrest over seven hundred Palestinians protesting in major cities like East Jerusalem, Lod, and Jaffa. As of Sunday, Israeli courts had filed 116 indictments against those arrested.

Central to such tactics is intensive digital tracking and monitoring. On May 10, a day before Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza strip began, hundreds of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem protested at Al-Aqsa Mosque. They decried decades of Israeli military occupation in Palestine. Palestinians called for the end to a colonial status quo that has culminated, most recently, in the expropriation of Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah by Jewish Israeli settlers. Those who attended the protest reported receiving intimidating text messages from the Shabak. “Hello!” the messages read in Arabic, “You have been identified to have taken part in violent acts at Al-Aqsa Mosque. We will hold you accountable — Israeli intelligence.”

On that same day, militant, right-wing Jewish Israelis stormed through Jerusalem’s divided old city, celebrating the anniversary of the Israeli state’s annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967. The crowd chanted, among other things, “death to Arabs” as they vandalized Palestinian property. The rioters did not receive any such warning over their mobile phones.