Hamas man 'plotted bombing, soldier kidnapping'

State Attorney's Office says resident of Gaza caught trying to enter Israel had planned attacks in Eilat area.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK, YAAKOV LAPPIN
Hamas supporters 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Hamas supporters 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
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.