A Gazan caught attempting 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.
Muhammad Hassin Awad Abu Adareh, 20, from
Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, is alleged to be a member of Hamas’s military
wing, the Izzadin Kassam.
Prosecutors say he also planned to kidnap an
IDF soldier, which Hamas has been threatening to do repeatedly since the release
of tank gunner Gilad Schalit.
The charges provide a detailed account of
continued Hamas attempts to murder Israelis, and underline the fragility of the
current cease-fire between Israel and Gazan terrorist groups.
The
Southern District Attorney filed an indictment on Monday against
Aderah.
According to the indictment, Adareh joined Izzadin Kassam last
summer, after moving to Sinai from Gaza.
His first tasks involved
gathering information on IDF forces stationed near Eilat and on the Egyptian
border, including photographing them for a senior Izzadin Kassam agent, Yunus
Abu Shaluf, the indictment said.
Shortly afterward, another Izzadin
Kassam member, Rushdi Abu Aderah, met Adareh in a mosque in
Rafah.
Rushdi, who acted as Aderah’s handler, gave him a GPS device,
video camera and handgun.
Adareh traveled to the Taba border crossing on
the Egypt-Israel border, where he filmed IDF positions and locations within
Eilat.
He also gathered GPS coordinates for locations within Eilat and
its surrounding areas – including the city’s 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 involved in drug-running
only.
Adareh then returned to Gaza, where he, Abu Shaluf and Rushdi
traveled to the Izzadin Kassam headquarters.
They then turned over the
collected photographs and information to a man named Al-Atar, a senior agent of
the 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.
Abu Shaluf then allegedly
instructed Adareh to scout out more IDF locations on the Sinai border, and told
him that in addition to the kidnapping plan, Izzadin Kassam was 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, and as a result he
returned to Gaza where he told Abu Shaluf about his suspicions, the indictment
said, Abu Shaluf then told Adareh that he had prepared a car in Sinai, and
Adareh agreed to drive suicide bombers from Egypt into Israel so they could
perform reconnaissance missions in the area.
According to the indictment,
Adareh said that since the IDF used the road from Egypt to Israel to transport
soldiers, he could shoot at IDF vehicles with an rocket-propelled
grenade.
Adareh also suggested placing rocket launchers in Sinai and
firing projectiles at Eilat, but Abu Shaluf rejected the idea, saying Israeli
security forces were aware of Hamas’s activities in Sinai and Egypt had told
them to stop their actions in the region.
On February 20, Adareh was
arrested after infiltrating into Israel with two other men, Saddam Abu Adareh
and Ashraf al-Zufi.