Hamas man ´plotted bombing, soldier kidnapping´ (JERUSALEM POST) By JOANNA PARASZCZUK, YAAKOV LAPPIN 03/21/12)
Source: http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=262813
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A resident of Gaza caught trying to enter Israel was on a terrorism
mission aimed at launching a suicide bombing attack in the Eilat
area, the State Attorney´s Office revealed on Wednesday.
Mohammed Hassin Awad Abu Adareh, 20, of Rafah, Gaza, is alleged to be
a member of Hamas´s military wing, the Izz ad-Din Qassam Brigades.
Prosecutors say he also planned to kidnap an IDF soldier, which Hamas
has been threatening to do repeatedly since the release of former
captive soldier Gilad Schalit.
The charges provide a detailed account of continued Hamas attempts to
murder Israelis, and underline how fragile the current ´ceasefire´
between Israel and Gazan terror groups is.
The Southern District Attorney filed an indictment on Monday against
Aderah.
According to the indictment, Adareh joined Hamas´s Qassam Brigades
last summer, after moving to Sinai from Gaza.
His first tasks involved gathering information on IDF forces
stationed on the Egypt-Israel border and near Eilat, including
photographing them for a senior Qassam Brigades agent, Yunus Abu
Shaluf, the indictment said.
Shortly afterward, another Qassam Brigades member, Rushdi Abu Aderah,
met Adareh in a mosque in Rafah. Rushdi, who acted as Aderah´s
handler, gave him a GPS device, a video camera and a handgun.
Adareh traveled to the Taba border crossing on the Egyptian-Israeli
border, where he filmed IDF positions.
Adareh also filmed videos of Eilat and gathered GPS coordinates on
the Red Sea city and its surrounding area, including its airport and
an IDF base near the border, the indictment said.
Shortly afterward, a member of Israel´s security forces made
telephone contact with Adareh, who immediately hung up the phone.
However, Rushdi told him to answer the next call, and find out how
much the Israeli authorities knew about them, the indictment said, so
when the man called again, Adareh told him he was only involved in
drug-running.
Adareh then returned to Gaza, where he, Abu Sharef and Rushdi
traveled to the Qassam Brigades headquarters and turned over the
photographs and information they gathered to a man named Al-Atar, a
senior agent of that terrorist group responsible for the southern
part of the Gaza Strip, the indictment said.
Al-Atar told Adareh to gather more information about Eilat, and
Adareh realized that he was being asked to help carry out a plan to
kidnap a soldier, the indictment charges.
Allegedly, Abu Shaluf then instructed Adareh to scout out more IDF
locations on the Sinai border, and told him that in addition to the
plan to kidnap a soldier, the Qassam Brigades were also plotting a
suicide bombing attack.
Adareh then allegedly photographed locations around the Kerem Shalom
border crossing on the Israel-Gaza-Egypt border, including several
IDF locations across the border from al-Qasimia in Sinai.
However, shortly afterward, Adareh began to suspect that one of his
colleagues was a Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) agent, the
indictment said, and as a result he returned to Gaza where he told
Abu Sharef his suspicions.
During that meeting, Abu Sharef told Adareh that he had prepared a
car in Sinai, and Adareh agreed to drive suicide bombers from Egypt
into Israel, so that they could perform reconnaissance missions in
the area, the indictment said.
Adareh said that since the IDF used the road from Egypt to Israel to
transport soldiers, he could shoot at IDF vehicles with an RPG, the
indictment charges.
Adareh also allegedly suggested placing rocket launchers in Sinai and
firing projectiles at Eilat, but Abu Sharef turned him down, saying
that Israeli security forces knew about all Hamas´s activities in
Sinai, and that Egypt had told them to stop their actions in the
region.
On February 20th, Adareh was arrested after infiltrating into Israel
with two other men, Saddam Abu Adareh and Ashraf al-Zufi. (© 1995-
2011, The Jerusalem Post 03/21/12)
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