Overview
Fatah-Tanzim and Hamas terrorist-operatives were detained in Ramallah and Hebron in recent Israeli security force counterterrorist activities. The detainees had been involved in planning and implementing terrorist attacks, some of them deadly, such as suicide bombing attacks, an abduction and in planting explosive charges.
2. On May 28 Khaled Jamal Musa Shawish , a senior Fatah-Tanzim operative in the Jenin region, was detained in Ramallah . He had been on the wanted list for several years for his involvement in attacks which killed eight Israeli civilians. Among them were the dispatching of suicide bombers in 2002 and shooting attacks on the trans-Samaria highway in 2000-2001. During the last few years he had dealt mainly with directing terrorist attacks, including suicide bombing attacks and abductions and shootings.
3. During May a three-man terrorist squad of Hamas operatives was exposed in the Hebron region . They had planted a series of charges on the trans-Judea highway (between Kiryat Arba and Kiryat Gat), planning to attack IDF forces, using a modus operandi similar to Hezbollah’s in Lebanon .
Khaled Jamal Musa Shawish detained in Ramallah
Khaled Jamal Musa Shawish
4. On May 28 Israeli security forces detained Fatah-Tanzim leader Kahled Jamal Musa Shawish in Ramallah. The detention took place near the Muqataa. He had been wanted by the security forces for the past several years.
5. Khaled Shawish was born in �Aqqaba (northeast of Nablus ) in 1971, and was a senior Fatah-Tanzim operative in the Nablus region. He was involved in a large number of deadly terrorist attacks, which killed eight Israelis and wounded dozens more .
6. Some of the more prominent attacks were:
A. The November 2000 shooting attack on an Israeli vehicle on the trans-Samaria highway, in which a number of Israeli civilians were wounded.
B. The December 21, 2000 shooting attack on an Israeli vehicle on the Tel Aviv-Modi’in-Jerusalem road, in which a resident of Modi’in was killed.
C. The December 2000 shooting attack on an Israeli vehicle in which an Israeli civilian was wounded.
D. The December 31, 2000 shooting attack on an Israeli vehicle near the settlement of Ofra, in which Rabbi Binyamin Ze’ev Kahane, son of Rabbi Meir Kahane, and his wife were killed and their five children were wounded.
E. The April 30, 2001 shooting attack on an Israeli vehicle in the Benjamin region of the West Bank , which resulted in the death of an Ofra resident.
7. At the end of 2001 Khaled Shawish was wounded and crippled in a firefight with the Israeli security forces. Despite his handicap he continued organizing and directing lethal terrorist attacks, including suicide bombing attacks . Among them were the following:
A. September 15, 2001 : a shooting attack on the French Hill in Jerusalem , in which an Israeli civilian was killed. Khaled Shawish supplied weapons to the terrorists who carried out the attack.
B. February 27, 2002 : a suicide bombing attack at the Maccabim roadblock, carried out by a female suicide bomber dispatched by Khaled Shawish. Two Fatah-Tanzim operatives escorted her. When asked to provide identification, she blew herself up. The two Fatah-Tanzim operatives sitting in the car were shot and critically wounded. Two Israeli police officers were wounded. Before setting out she was photographed holding an upraised knife.
The suicide bomber, Darin Muhammad Tawfiq Abu Aisha
C. March 21, 2002 : a suicide bombing attack on King George Street in Jerusalem , carried out by a 21-year old suicide bomber from the village of Talloza north of Nablus . He had been in contact with Khaled Shawish. A former member of the Palestinian police force, he blew himself up at the entrance to a coffee shop. Two women who escorted him to the site of the attack were detained by the Israeli security forces. The attack resulted in the deaths of three Israelis and the wounding of approximately 80.
The suicide bomber, Muhammad Mashhur Muhammad Hashaikeh
8. For the past few years Khaled Shawish had been living in Ramallah and had been one of the prominent operatives in directing many Fatah-Tanzim activities. His connections with prominent members of the Palestinian Authority enabled him to hide in the Muqataa. 1 During his stay in Ramallah he continued planning and directing terrorist attacks. He taught Fatah-Tanzim operatives to manufacture charges and explosive belts, was involved in orchestrating a number of suicide bombing attacks and took part in planning shooting attacks, an abduction and the planting of explosive charges.
Hamas cell exposed in the Hebron region
9. In May 2007 the Israeli security forces exposed a squad of Hamas terrorist-operatives in the Hebron region which had planned to use side charges to attack IDF forces along the trans-Judea highway (between Kiryat Arba and Kiryat Gat). On April 7 and 8 the cell laid two charges, one of which was to be detonated by cell phone.
10. The cell members were all Hebron residents: the head was Abd al-Hadi Abu Aisha , 20, one of a prominent family of Hamas operatives, and Ta’er Abu Aisha , 21. They admitted that there was a third cell member, Sa’ad Abu Aisha , brother of a Hamas terrorist-operative who was killed in an attempted attack against IDF in November 2005.
11. During interrogation the two stated that in April 2007 they planned to lay a charge on the road as bait. After the IDF soldiers had reached the site they were going to detonate another charge with a cell phone, a modus operandi familiar from Hezbollah activities in Lebanon .
12. During the detention of the cell members and of operatives who worked with them preparing charges, several dozen kilograms of materials for manufacturing explosives were seized.
