Overview

• On January 25, 2006, the day Palestinian Legislative Council elections were held, Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar, senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip and candidate for the post of foreign minister, stated that Hamas was committed to the ideology of its 1988 charter . He noted emphatically that “the movement [would] not change a single word in its charter,” which calls for the destruction of the State of Israel , and would not become a purely political movement, but quite the opposite, it would continue its policy of “resistance” (i.e., terrorist attacks) (Reuters, Gaza , January 25).

• The Hamas charter referred to by Mahmoud al-Zahar was formulated during the first year of the previous round of the violent Israeli-Palestinian confrontations (1987-1993). It was edited and approved by Ahmad Yassin , the movement's founder and leader (who died in a targeted killing in March 2004), and issued on August 18, 1988. It is Hamas's most important ideological document and as of this writing, copies continue to be circulated in the Palestinian Authority-administered territories. It makes extensive use of Islamic sources (the Qur'an and hadith ¹) to assure its religious Islamic basis.

• Infiltrating terrorists with medical documents and exploiting Israel's humanitarianism, which allows Palestinians to enter Israel to receive medical treatment: In recent years the Palestinian terrorist organizations have attempted to infiltrate larger numbers of terrorists though the crossing by having them masquerade as ill individuals in need of medical treatment. A prominent example was the female suicide bomber, Wafa Samir Ibrahim al-Bas , who in June 2005 was arrested wearing exploding tights. She was stopped at the Erez crossing, where she had crossed with medical documents enabling her to receive treatment at a hospital in Israel . She had been sent by Fatah/Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades to carry out a suicide bombing attack at the hospital. ¹

•  Infiltrating terrorist-operatives into Israel through the Sinai and the Negev , and exploiting the lack of physical obstacles along the border: During interrogation, Samih Haddad stated that his attempt to cross though the Erez crossing was not the first and that a number of months previously his handlers had tried to infiltrate him in through Egypt . During the past year there has been an increase in the number of attempts made by the Palestinian terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip, among them the PIJ, to infiltrate terrorist-operatives into Israel through the Sinai peninsula . For example, on February 8, 2006, two PIJ terrorist-operatives who had arrived from the Gaza Strip were arrested in the Negev . One was a 17 1-year old potential suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest, and the other was his escort. They had come via Sinai to carry out a suicide bombing attack in Jerusalem .

•  Exploiting the relatively easy entrance given by Israel to West Bank residents and possessors of West Bank identity cards who temporarily live in the Gaza Strip : That conduit was exposed when Ihad Tity was arrested. He went from the West Bank to study in the Gaza Strip, and as a West Bank resident received a permit to return. Another example was Muhammad Bahisi, who was arrested in March 2005. He was a Hamas terrorist-operative residing temporarily the Gaza Strip and who planned to carry out a suicide bombing attack in Israel after having first gone to the West Bank as a potential kidney donor. He received a permit allowing him to enter the West Bank for medical reasons because on his ID card, place of residence was listed as Qalandia.

• Following are the statements of the two terrorist-operatives: ²

Dispatching a terrorist-operative from the Gaza Strip
to carry out a mass-murder attack in Israel

• On March 7, 2006, Samih Maher Salameh Haddad , 21, a resident of Zeitun in the Gaza Strip, was arrested at the Erez crossing point. Samih Haddad tried to enter Israel using counterfeit medical documents, which would have allowed him to enter Israel to receive medical treatment. During interrogation he admitted that he had been recruited by the PIJ. He had been given training and several times had even participated in the launching of Qassam rockets into Israel .

Samih Haddad

• In January 2006 his PIJ handlers informed him that they intended to send him into Israel through the Erez crossing. They told him that counterfeit medical documents indicating the need for urgent medical treatment would enable him to enter.

• On March 7 his handlers told him the documents were ready. Before he left the Gaza Strip, they introduced him to Majid Yussuf Ibrahim Harazin , one of the senior PIJ's terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Samih Haddad was then led to the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing where he was instructed to infiltrate into Israel where he would receive an automatic weapon to carry out a shooting attack (even if it cost him his life) .

The arrest of a terrorist-operative sent to set up a terrorist-operative
infrastructure at Mt. Hebron

• On March 1, 2006, the Israeli security forces arrested Ihab Ahmad Musa Tity , a PIJ terrorist who was sent to the West Bank by his handlers from the Gaza Strip to set up a PIJ terrorist-operative infrastructure at Mt. Hebron .

• Ihab Tity, 25, a resident of Al-Aroub (north of Hebron ) went to the Gaza Strip for university studies in 2000. In 2004 he was recruited by the PIJ, and during 2005 began military training in explosives. His training, which ended in February 2006, included the manufacture of explosives, detonators, explosive belts and explosive devices; methods for detonating explosive devices; firing M-16 and Kalashnikov rifles and the theoretical use of RPGs.

• After his training, his handlers instructed him to return to his home in Al-Aroub and to establish a PIJ terrorist-operative infrastructure. It was to consist of several operative squads which would carry out various types of attacks against Israeli targets and would be funded by the organization in the Gaza Strip. They also instructed him to set up an explosives laboratory and to train recruited operatives in the manufacture of explosives, explosive devices and explosive belts.

• Among the attacks he was expected to carry out were the following: suicide bombing attacks carried out by terrorists he would recruit ; attacking buses and military vehicles with explosive charges; drive-by shooting attacks against Israeli vehicles in the West Bank . He was also expected to collect information about security measures at the West Bank settlements, especially about the vehicles used for security. He was asked to examine the possibility of abducting soldiers or civilians to use as bargaining chips in the release of prisoners . His handlers suggested he use a young woman to tempt a potential abductee or to pretend to want to buy drugs from an Israeli drug dealer and then to abduct him.

• At the end of February, Ihad Tity returned to Al-Aroub. On March 1, a few days after his return, he was arrested by the Israeli security forces. During interrogation he admitted that after his return he had begun gathering information about possible targets for attack, among them military jeeps at the entrance to Al-Aroub and the bus stop near Gush Etzion. He also investigated the security arrangements at the entrance to one of the settlements in the area.

¹ For further information see our Special Bulletin “A suicide bombing attack planned to be carried out in Israel by a Palestinian female suicide bomber was thwarted at the Erez crossing in the Gaza Strip,” at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia//ENGLISH/COUNTERTERRORISM-DATA/PDF/JUNE32_05.PDF

² According to Israel Security Agency reports.